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2016 April 13 - 19 TOP3 [JCP]

JCP strives hard to relieve victims of earthquakes in Kyushu

In Kumamoto Prefecture, which was hit hard by last week’s massive earthquake and the following aftershocks, local assembly members and local bodies of the Japanese Communist Party are providing support for disaster victims.

Relief supplies from JCP organizations in nearby prefectures are arriving at the JCP Kumamoto Prefectural Committee office in Kumamoto City one after another.

On the night of April 17, JCP members in the neighboring prefecture of Saga, including JCP prefectural assembly member Muto Akemi, delivered sports drink bottles, boxed meals, disposable diapers, and other relief items to the Kumamoto office. JCP Kumamoto Prefectural Assembly member Yamamoto Nobuhiro promptly delivered the goods to the Yayosu community center in the city where many people were taking shelter. A woman who was evacuated to the center said, “We didn’t receive supplies from the local or national governments. People here have to bring water from a school pool using buckets to flush the toilets and wait in line for three hours to get drinking water from water-supply trucks.”

On the morning of April 18, from Fukuoka Prefecture, which is directly north of Kumamoto, JCP members came to the Kumamoto JCP office in a car loaded with boxed meals and bottled drinks purchased with the use of donations that the JCP Fukuoka Prefectural Committee had collected on the streets. Guided by Yamamoto, the relief goods were distributed to evacuation shelters in the city. In the afternoon of the day, Yamamoto went around shelters in the city to hear specific requests from local residents.

On the same day, staff members of the JCP Kumamoto Prefectural Committee along with Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly members Takase Nahoko and Yamaguchi Ritsuko delivered relief goods. It took them four hours to reach Minamiaso Village as they had to make a wide detour around roads damaged by the quakes. The JCP members handed to the residents goods including food, water, and portable stoves.

JCP Yamamoto said to Akahata, “Various necessities are in short supply. We will continue to listen to specific requests from disaster victims and provide the goods they need most.”