03/04 Kan makes 1st visit to evacuee shelter

The Yomiuri Shimbun

RIKUZEN-TAKATA, Iwate--Prime Minister Naoto Kan visited a shelter for earthquake victims Saturday morning in Rikuzen-Takata, one of the areas most severely damaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami.

It was the prime minister's second visit to the disaster-hit region and his first to a shelter. On March 12, Kan made an aerial inspection of the region by helicopter.

Kan, who traveled to Rikuzen-Takata by a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter, first met with about 20 volunteer firefighters in front of a makeshift city government office.

"This will be a relatively long struggle," Kan told them. "But the government will do its best until everything is over, and I hope all of you will work hard, too."

Next on the itinerary was a visit to a gym at Yonesaki Primary School in the city, where about 180 evacuees are staying. Before leaving the city government's temporary office, Kan was briefed by Iwate Gov. Takuya Tasso and Rikuzen-Takata Mayor Futoshi Toba on conditions at the shelter.

"Were you in the hospital when the disaster hit?" Kan asked one of the evacuees. "Are your family members all right?"

Kan said to another, "I guess relief goods didn't reach you at the beginning."

Reactions to the prime minister's visit, about three weeks after the tsunami, among people staying at the shelter varied.

Haruko Sato, 72, told The Yomiuri Shimbun: "Nothing will change with the prime minister's visit to this shelter. I've expected nothing from the government from the very beginning."

Eriko Kanno, 60, who is staying in the shelter with her 88-year-old mother, said: "First of all, I want a place to live in, even if it's makeshift housing. I'm glad the prime minister could see the shelter with his own eyes and feel the coldness and hardship. I hope today's visit will result in getting some assistance."

Kan later went to Fukushima Prefecture, where he visited J-Village, a soccer training facility about 20 kilometers from Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The soccer facility is serving as the base for SDF personnel and firefighters trying to control the ongoing crisis at the plant.

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2nd day of intensive search

The Self-Defense Forces continued their intensive three-day search for the missing in tsunami-hit areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures on Saturday in cooperation with the U.S. military and Japan Coast Guard.

In the second day of the operation, about 90 ships and 130 aircraft were deployed to search the sea and land for people still unaccounted for after the March 11 earthquake.

On the operation's first day Friday, 34 bodies were recovered.

(Apr. 3, 2011)