Taylor Anderson, 24, was living her dream. She’d wanted to live in Japan, immersing herself in the culture and making new friends on the other side of the world, for a long time and she’d been thriving in the small coastal city where she taught English for almost two years. She was last seen alive riding her bicycle away from the school where she taught after making sure that her students were all safe following the 9.0 earthquake that triggered the tsunami. Her body was found ten days later, making her the first confirmed American fatality of the disaster. With thousands still missing, and no clear evidence of how many of them might be American, she is unlikely to be the last.
“Given the ever-evolving situation, we are unable to give an accurate count of U.S. citizens in the region,” State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said in an email to the Associated Press. “U.S. citizens are not required to sign up with the department when they go abroad.”
Anderson’s friends and family remember her as a confident, curious young woman determined to explore the world. She was a role model and a point of pride for her community.
“What we can do to honor Taylor’s memory is by doing what she gave her life for, that is, reaching out to the Japanese people, in tangible ways,” the Rev. Dorothy White, director of religious studies at St. Catherine’s School told the A.P., when asked about the young alum. The school is planning a Japan-relief oriented service project to honor Anderson.
Anderson was a “low-key, easygoing, sometimes bubbly, always warm young woman with a lively mind and a generous heart,” English teacher Derek Kannemeyer, who was her adviser when she was co-editor of the St. Catherine’s literary magazine, added to White’s comment on the young teacher. ”That she took these strengths and went out into the broader world to live a life of engagement and caring about other people, and of exploration, of discovery — is just what teachers hope their students will do.”
