National News

The message "ARIGATO" is seen on a beach near a runway of Sendai Airport in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. (Photograph courtesy of the United States Department of Defense)

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. commander of "Operation Tomodachi" to help with relief efforts in quake-ravaged northeastern Japan said that he had been impressed and moved by the Japanese people who were making desperate efforts to rebuild their country.

Robert Toss, a colonel with the U.S. Air Force, said in a telephone interview with reporters in Washington on April 15 that the devastation and destruction brought on by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami were beyond his imagination.

On his way to Sendai airport in Miyagi Prefecture on April 3, he saw from the air a message that read "ARIGATO" molded with broken trees on the seashore near a runway of Sendai Airport. Toss said it was the United States that wanted to express its gratitude to the people of Japan. The massage was arranged by local government officials using pieces of wood from pine trees and other trees that had been battered by the tsunami. Toss said he was deeply moved by the Japanese people who were desperately trying to restore their quake-torn country.

Toss belongs to the U.S. Air Force's 353rd Special Operations Group based at Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. On March 11, the day when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck northeastern Japan, Toss' group was having joint military exercises with South Korea. They cut the drills short to return to Yokota Air Base in the suburb of Tokyo and then moved on to the quake-affected area. Toss said he had decided to put priority on restoring Sendai Airport and using it as a base for transporting relief materials.

By March 16, Sendai Airport was restored to the extent that made it possible for large transport planes to land and take off, paving the way for large-scale airlifting of fuel, water and food. In about three weeks since then, about 270 U. S. troops, mainly from the army, have been engaged in relief operations and airlifted about 1,140 metric tons of relief materials and about 57,000 liters of fuel to quake- and tsunami-affected areas by way of Sendai Airport.

Air traffic control services were handed over to the Japanese side on April 1 and commercial flights were resumed on April 13. Toss stressed that the vitality and vigor held by the Japanese people would give the country hope for the future.