Children from the Gaza Strip in Quake-Stricken Kamaishi
Kamaishi was among those cities by the Pacific coast hard hit by the Great Northeast Japan Earthquake now gradually recovering from the damage.
In the city of Kamaishi are children from the Gaza Strip of the interim autonomous region in conflict-torn Palestine mingling with local children in a kite-fling event arranged by an NPO operating in supportive activities in Palestine.
On November 3, a group of 3 children, aged 13 to 15, from the Gaza Strip called on a temporary dwelling of quake victims and interacted with local children talking about their experiences in their home country in conflict and listening to the local children tell their own stories of the last earthquake.
The children from Gaza enjoyed friendly encounters with some 100 local children flying kites among others of the national flags of Japan and Palestine.
The Israeli army's major onslaught on the Gaza Strip last summer victimized many and the end of the conflict is nowhere in sight.
A girl from Gaza told her local friends:
"Please be tolerant and be sure not to lose hope. We are going through our share of hardship. Both of us just have to overcome our trials".
A local elementary schoolboy responded:
"It's tough to go through with all sorts of difficulties after the earthquake, but I now feel we must do our utmost to go through with them all".
An episode in passing on Kamaishi:
Kamaishi has an age-old legend of "Tsunami Come, Act on Your Own" - a local legend handed over through the ages meaning when struck by earthquakes "never mind even of your own family members and just run uphill". School children in Kamaishi, some 3,000 of them, survived the earthquake this time at an impressive survival rate of 99.8% - a Kamaishi Miracle, it was so reported.
