Thursday marks the tenth anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which struck Japan in 2011, killing over 15,000 people. One of the country’s most senior representatives in Taiwan has marked the occasion by thanking the Taiwanese people for their unwavering support.
Izumi Hiroyasu is the Chief Representative of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Office in Taipei. He says from the moment the earthquake struck until today, Taiwan has stood beside Japan and provided help and support. Taiwanese government figures show that Taiwanese organizations donated a total of NT$6.84 billion (US$240 million) to recovery efforts after the earthquake. That’s more than any other country.
The earthquake struck March 11, 2011 at 2:46pm with a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan and the fourth most powerful recorded in the world. The resulting tsunami reached at least three stories high in places and caused meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Almost 16,000 people were killed, around 6,000 injured, and more than 2,000 people remain missing.