Asia-Pacific

Troops doubled for relief efforts, world rushes aid

By Hiroshi Hiyama (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-14 08:21

Soldiers from Japan's Self Defence Force search for victims among the rubble after a massive earthquake of magnitude 9 and tsunami struck Rikuzentakata, northern Japan. Toru Hanai / Reuters

SENDAI, Japan - Japan on Sunday committed 100,000 troops to help earthquake and tsunami survivors as the world rallied behind the disaster-stricken nation and a US aircraft carrier began flying in food.

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The deployment, ordered by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, doubles the number of troops already on the ground after the massive scale of the devastation wrought by the twin disasters emerged along the northeast coast.

Meanwhile, offers of help poured in from across the world including China.

Beijing sent condolences from Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and a team of 15 rescuers.

Japan's foreign ministry said 69 nations or regions and five international aid organizations had offered assistance as of Sunday morning.

Among them was New Zealand, which suffered its own earthquake devastation last month in the city of Christchurch.

A 66-strong Japanese team which has spent more than two weeks scouring the rubble in Christchurch also rushed home to confront the unfolding tragedy.

An Australian military plane was poised to leave carrying rescue dogs and searchers, some of them just back from New Zealand.

"I don't think what we have seen in Christchurch can remotely compare to (Japan)," said rescuer Barry Lowday.

South Korea was to fly 102 rescue and medical workers to the Sendai region on Sunday night on a military aircraft, said Vice-Foreign Minister Min Dong-seok.

President Lee Myung-bak expressed sympathy and condolences in a phone conversation with Kan on Sunday morning. Lee told Kan he was "moved by the calm response shown by Japanese in the face of such an enormous natural disaster".

Search and rescue teams and sniffer dogs also arrived from Germany and Switzerland, and rescuers from the United Kingdom and France have been dispatched.

Japan has asked the US aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan for help to refuel its helicopters and transport troops to affected areas.

The carriers' own helicopters have flown 20 missions to and from a Japanese ship and delivered food and supplies to three towns, the US embassy said.

A 150-member US Agency for International Development team arrived to join inland operations along with 12 dogs.

In addition to rescuers, Australia offered to send nuclear specialists to help manage the threat from the damaged nuclear power station.

Two experts from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission were headed for Japan, where fears of a meltdown led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 03/14/2011 page11)