Australian PM 1st foreign leader to visit tsunami-hit area

SENDAI —

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Saturday visited a Japanese coastal town devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, becoming the first foreign leader to travel to the disaster-hit area.

Her visit to Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, accompanied by Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, followed the deployment there from March 16 to 19 of 75 rescue workers and two search dogs from Australia.

Gillard was briefed by Minamisanirku Mayor Jin Sato on how he survived the disaster at the town’s disaster prevention office building, which was reduced to its frame by the tsunami. A local photographer took a picture of Sato and other officials clinging to the top of the structure while the tsunami engulfed the three-story building.

Gillard also visited a gymnasium being used as a makeshift shelter accommodating about 340 survivors and gave stuffed toy koalas and kangaroos to children, who in return handed her folded paper cranes—symbols of peace.

Recalling her impressions when she saw her first images of the disaster on television, Gillard said she found the scale of the devastation amazing. But she added that nothing compared with seeing the disaster zone at first hand. ‘‘It is miraculous that anyone survived such devastation,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s been amazing to see the spirit of the people…even in such difficult, difficult circumstances,’’ Gillard said, referring to the cheerful atmosphere in the shelter where both children and adults greeted her in English.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, accompanied by her partner Tim Mathieson (to her right), holds baby Iori Sato, who was born in March 26, during their visit to an evacuation center in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, on Saturday. Gillard is the first foreign leader to visit one of the areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Read the whole story
http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/australian-pm-1st-foreign-leader-to-visit-tsunami-hit-area

・Here are the latest reports on the quake victims in Japan.  
http://hearthevoicefromjapan.blogspot.com/

How can we help?

・Save the Children, Japan quake victim
www.savethechildren.org/japanquake

・Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support Website

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Japan-Earthquake-Animal-Rescue-and-Support/207835229228979
OR;
http://japanearthquakeanimalrelief.chipin.com/japan-earthquake-animal-rescue-and-support/

・Japanese Red Cross
http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/relief/l4/Vcms4_00002070.html