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6 April 2011 Yokohama, Japan |
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Dear Toastmasters in Taiwan: It is very sad for us to see that a great number of people in north-eastern Japan continue to face difficulty, as they lost family members, friends, houses, offices, schools, hospitals, practically everything. April is a very happy season for us as cherry blossoms come out. Concurrent with it, school children start a new school year, but a great number of them in the affected areas can not attend their classes happily meeting with their teachers and classmates. In the coastal areas, many schools are washed away or occupied by the evacuees, teachers are missing and school supplies are lost. Here in the Tokyo/Yokohama area the damages are relatively minor, but major challenges for us all will continue probably for very long time. We have to solve problems of infrastructure build-up, reconstruction of local community, rehabilitation of thousands people and sealing of the troubled nuclear power plant’s reactors. Luckily we are supported strongly by international groups from immediately after the disaster until now and probably in the future. More than twenty countries sent their rescue teams together with necessary equipment and supplies. We are much encouraged by their goodwill and prompt actions. I have realized anew importance of international cooperation and ties whenever a country and the people face enormous difficulty.. Among those goodwill, I wish to thank you the great assistance rendered by Taiwan and its people. Taiwan sent us a rescue team earlier to search for the missing victims. In addition, I understand, your generous donations for the disaster have now reached 10 billion Japanese yen (or 3.5 billion new Taiwan dollars), which is a really great sum beyond my imagination. The move for help was initiated by all the members of the Taiwan Legislature, I hear, followed by the local bodies and then the private sectors, corporations and individual citizens. People in Taiwan are very kind to us, by showing real friendship in need. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to you. Many thanks, arigato, feichang ganhsie or in Taiwan language dousha ---usually this word is repeated twice, like dousha dousha. But I have to repeat it hundreds or more times to all the people in Taiwan. I remember many Toastmasters in Taiwan, when we visited Taiwan in connection with Toastmasters’ gatherings and mountain hikes in Jiufen and Yangmingshan. Thank you very much.
Eiji
Kobayashi
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