Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association relief news update from Japan.
Two and a half weeks after the world’s fourth most powerful earthquake ever and massive tsunami hit northeastern Japan, the official toll of dead and confirmed is now over 28,000, but still expected to rise steeply as the country also faces the need to care for an unknown number of orphaned children and animal companions.

Meanwhile, local governments have commenced reconstruction efforts in places like Miyagi Prefecture, where more than 80,000 survivors will benefit from the new temporary housing.

On Monday, March 28, Ashinome Kindergarten in the town of Kesennuma held a graduation ceremony for 50 six-year-old boys and girls moving on to first grade.

Despite the entire fishing port being devastated by the quake, tsunami, and ensuing fires, all the children at the school survived except one student who is still missing. Likewise, all students except one still missing also survived at the nearby Minami-Kesennuma Elementary School, with the entire graduating class receiving their diplomas on March 23.

Since the initial disasters, Supreme Master Ching Hai has donated US$80,000 in aid. Sending all her love and sorrowful prayers, she asked that our Association members, including doctors and nurses, please go render assistance and bring emergency supplies such as medicine to the most vulnerable disaster-afflicted, adding that headquarters at Hsihu would reimburse any extra expenses.

Contributions from our Association members around the world have brought the total to US$110,000. Meanwhile, relief teams from Japan and Formosa (Taiwan) have been working in the worst-hit areas, with another team in South Korea that has been preparing relief kits for the victims.
In accordance with Supreme Master Ching Hai’s concerned requests for updates, the following is a report by our Association’s relief team from Gunma Center in Japan.

Supreme Master Ching Hai sent the following reply:

VOICE: Our gratefulness to Supreme Master Ching Hai for permitting us to share these details with our global viewers, as well as to our Association’s Foreign Group for providing this report.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands who were forced to evacuate from near the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are now facing the prospect that they may never return home.

Indeed, as the nuclear crisis continues, 10 microsieverts per hour of atmospheric radiation was detected even 40 kilometers northwest of the plant in Iitate village, which is well beyond both the evacuation zone and the 30-kilometer distance from the plant where residents have been advised to stay indoors.

According to the environmental group Greenpeace, such radiation levels are high enough to require evacuation.

The group is joining many other experts who say an extension is needed for the mandatory evacuation zone. On Monday, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection announced the detection of additional low doses of radioactive iodine from Japan’s nuclear plant.

Trace amounts of iodine-131 believed to have originated at the plant were also reported in the air over the southern US states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and public health agencies are also increasing their monitoring of air quality after traces of radioactive iodine were also detected over Scotland’s largest city of Glasgow.

After water containing extremely high levels of radiation was found to have leaked into trenches outside the No. 2 reactor building, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) put up sandbags and concrete blocks in efforts to prevent it from overflowing into the sea. With highly irradiated waters that have similarly been found in the turbine buildings of reactors No. 1, 2, and 3, TEPCO requested that France’s nuclear group AREVA send experts to assist in its removal.

However, concerns continue to be expressed about the potential spread of radiation into northern seawaters and soil. As Dr. Edwin Lyman (NFT: PhD), a physicist and expert on nuclear plant design with the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists, warned: “It's just hard to see how this won't result in significant contamination of, certainly, sea water.”

The irradiated water is also hampering efforts to restore the plant’s cooling systems and avoid further meltdowns in the reactors that could lead to catastrophic radiation leaks.

We thank all governments, organizations, and personnel working to assist Japan through these critical situations. Our gratefulness also for Supreme Master Ching Hai’s heartfelt support, as well as for the sincere efforts of our Association’s relief team.

May the productive lives of the Japanese people be smoothly restored as we pray for the easing of such calamities through humanity’s swift adoption of more benevolent lifestyles.