TSUNAMI IMPACT: Japanese Loosen Their Purse Strings

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kauchi

TOKYO, Jan 6 2005 (IPS) - While world leaders were meeting in Jakarta to discuss massive tsunami reconstruction and relief programs, ordinary Japanese Thursday joined their international counterparts as they donated generously to relief funds for survivors of the killer waves.

On their first day of work after the week-long New Year holidays, many loosened their purse-strings with the hope that their money would reach fast those people who are most in need.

Asia’s tsunami disaster has sparked an extraordinary wave of generosity from Greenland to Greece, from corner bakers donating proceeds to sports clubs selling T-shirts to Dutch children going from door-to-door.

Killer waves, spawned from a 9.0 undersea quake in northern Sumatra the day after Christmas, crashed into beachfronts from Indonesia to Africa, killing over 140,000 people.

Doctors are warning of a looming catastrophe, among the survivors, including gangrenous wounds that require amputations, children with diarrhea and pneumonia spread by dirty water.

”We just opened our postal relief account this morning and already we have had a surge of phone calls by supporters,” said Kyoko Matsuoka, who directs the Japan Volunteer Center (JVC), an independent non-profit organisation that has launched a relief programme in Thailand.

The west coast of Thailand was severely hit by the tsunami and more than 5,200 people are confirmed dead, but the Thai prime minister says this figure is certain to rise. Half the number of bodies identified so far are foreign tourists.

While large groups such as the Japanese Red Cross and UNICEF Japan are already reporting that individual collections have reached millions of dollars, less known non-governmental organisations (NGOs) too are reporting a phenomenal increase in donations to their appeals.

”We were inundated by telephone calls Wednesday and Thursday,” said Shoko Uchida, spokesperson for Pacific Asia Resources Center (PARC), an NGO that recently became the first Japanese group to start an aid programme with fishermen in the rebel-held north of Sri Lanka.

PARC is helping hospitals in the affected countries buy antibiotics and other medicines and Ushida said people felt happy to support an organisation that was already working on the ground.

Even individuals who have started personal appeals have been overwhelmed with support.

”I had two hundred telephone calls from my Japanese friends for two days after the tsunami caused havoc. I started a personal account to collect donations Wednesday and I hope to gather more than a million yen (9,528 U.S. dollars),” explained Tilak Silva, a Sri Lankan university student.

Some 30,500 have died in Sri Lanka and thousands more are missing. The number of homeless people is put at between 800,000 and one million.

Activists said the current donation campaigns show several distinct features that mark the first signs of a mature aid-giving society that has until recently been content to rely on their government to provide international assistance.

”The ongoing donations show how more individuals are making their own decisions as to whom they want to support. This is a step away from the usual trend of contributing to the usual big names such as the United Nations,” explained Uchida.

English teacher Kazuko Iwatsuki said she joined a Sri Lanka friend in a campaign to help the worst-hit areas of the country because she wanted the money she raised with her companions to reach the victims directly.

”I am a bit tired of seeing donors arrive in gleaming new four-wheel drive vehicles in destitute villages. I want my donation to be used more wisely by local grassroot groups, rather than being squandered by the large U.N.-type aid organisations,” she said.

JVC supporters are also supportive of the NGO launching relief campaigns for the tsunami survivors every six months – based on the phases of the relief effort, which will move from emergency to the stabilisation and finally the rebuilding phase.

The Japanese NGO also works with more than 28 local groups in Thailand who are currently involved in the relief effort in Phuket and plans to raise more than 100,000 U.S. dollars for its emergency operations.

Asako Nakano who decided to help JVC said she did so because the organisation pledged assistance to local children orphaned after their parents were swept away by the tsunami.

”I want to help a programme to keep working after the emergency, and not just be concentrated on the tourist resorts” said the 50-year-old office worker who plans to raise 2,000 U.S. dollars this week with her friends.

Japan, the largest aid donor in Asia, has pledged a whopping 500 million U.S. dollars for the tsunami victims, apart from Tokyo’s traditional aid assistance to the countries.

Not to be left out are top Japanese companies, which are pledging donations by the millions, sending cash, food and flashlights with hopes of raising their image in the region as good corporate citizens.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it’s donating 100 million yen (953,233 U.S.. dollars), and is considering more. Toyota has operations in some of the hardest-hit nations, including Thailand, Indonesia and India.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is donating 20 million yen (190,641 U.S. dollars) in cash as well as 26,500 flashlights, 210,000 batteries and 5,000 emergency food packages to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and India, company.

Sony Corp. has donated 30 million yen (285,894 U.S. dollars) through the Japanese Red Cross and has given the Thai government an additional 128,000 U.S. dollars in local currency in aid.