I am enclosing some corrections to my original email and a letter from Bruce McDonald, the owner of the Natural Import Company. Reading his letter has brought this tragedy even closer to home. After eating the foods from these suppliers for some time I feel that I know them personally and now feel this loss even more strongly.
I will again forward more information as I receive it.

Corrections from John Belleme and Yuzo Iwata:
Onozaki miso is not made in Sendai. It is made in Yaita-city Tochigi prefecture, a long way from Sendai.
Johsen shoyu is made in Sendai Miyagi prefecture.

Letter from Bruce McDonald unedited:

Three of our suppliers were directly impacted by the disaster.

1. San Riku Bay wakame. The bay was completely torn up and worse most if not
all of the divers and processors were killed.

2. Sendai nori area is completely destroyed.,.

3. It is too early to tell about Johsen. They are located in the mountains
about 50 miles northwest of the nuclear plant and were not affected by the
tsunami but they still have no power and no phones so we don’t know much.
The prevailing wind is west to east so the radiation exposure might be
minor. Again, too early to tell.

Most of our suppliers are south of Tokyo. So unless there is a Chernoble
type of explosion that breaks open the reactor and causes a massive
radiation release, our other suppliers should not be affected. The Japanese
government is testing everything now that is exported and will not allow any
tainted product to be shipped abroad.

Before people get too worked up about low level radiation, they should
realize that there are 104 nuclear plants in the US all of which are leaking
radiation…
The worst one is in Vermont which is so old and obsolete (at least 5 years
beyond its safe operating lifespan), that it is leaking radiation constantly
through its containment walls.
Radiation is everywhere…it’s all about the levels of contamination as to
whether it poses a health risk.

We are currently sourcing wakame, OG shoyu and miso from Kyushu in southern
Japan.

Best Regards,
Bruce