Japan may not have felt literal aftershocks from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that ravaged Nepal thousands of miles away on Saturday. But the disaster triggered not too distant memories of the Asian nation’s own disaster, along with an outpouring of aid and resources for the troubled victims of the new quake.
In a small way, the tragedy did still strike close to home. One Japanese man was killed and a Japanese woman was injured, both aged at about 50, in an avalanche that ensued at Mt. Everest after the earthquake. That man is among the thousands injured and the still rising total of the dead left in the disaster’s wake.
According to The Japan Times the Japanese Cooperation Agency will provide ¥25 million ($210,000) worth of aid supplies like tents and blankets, along with a rescue team that will assist in searches for missing people amongst the rubble. That team is comprised of 70 officers from the Japan Coast Guard, the National Police Agency, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency and other departments.
Those measures, and other in-progress operations, are the least that Japan can do, according to Shigenobu Kobayashi, a Foreign Ministry official leading Japan’s aid effort. He added: “We received support from various countries after the Great East Japan Earthquake. We’d like to give something back as representatives of Japan.”
As a recent New York Times reports, the death toll has reached 4,000 and is still climbing. Meanwhile, First Post is providing a rundown of Japan’s relief efforts, as well as the various aid measures being carried out by a number of other nations, from the U.S. to Pakistan.
The following sites have information about how you can provide assistance:
www.globalgiving.org/projects/nepal-earthquake-relief-fund
This site is being updated live, and has quite a few links:
www.maheshpoudyal.com/nepal-earthquake-25-april-2015
(via Slate)
www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/world/asia/where-to-donate-for-nepal.html?ref=world
—Kyle Mullin
Image: By Krish Dulal (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
