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Schoolchildren Wait But May Never See Mom and Dad Again
03/18/2011 -
Ishinomaki, Japan
Huddled under blankets in a freezing classroom, 30 Japanese schoolchildren wait patiently for their parents to arrive.
But most of these youngsters in Ishinomaki will never see their moms and dads again.
The children, aged from eight to 12, have been silently playing games since a tsunami roared through the coastal town seven days ago as parents arrived at the school to collect them.
Many adults were hit by the giant wave before they got to the school gates.
Those still in the school, which now has no heating, water and little food, are among at least 100,000 children made homeless, many of them feared to be orphans and now in crowded evacuation centres.
Exactly a week has passed since the earthquake and tsunami struck north east Japan and the official number of dead and missing is approaching 15,000.
But another 10,000 are said to have vanished in Ishinomaki alone. And experts fear the statistics are a terrible underestimate of those who perished.
Ken Joseph, an associate professor at Chiba University, is in Ishinomaki with the Japan Emergency Team, said: “I think the death toll will be closer to 100,000.”
He also pointed to food shortages and added: “We’ve had an earthquake followed by fire, then a tsunami, then radiation, and now snow. There’s nothing left. The world needs to step in. Where are the Americans?
“The Japanese are too proud to ask but we need help and we need it now.”
Rescuers hold out little hope of finding more survivors.
(Reprinted from the Daily Mirror - UK)
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