ABOARD THE USS RONALD REAGAN — When U.S. Navy helicopters swept down on the school in a ruined Japanese village, survivors first looked hesitantly from the windows. Then they rushed out, helping unload food, water and clothes. They clasped hands with the Americans. Some embraced them.
“They are like gods descending from the sky,” said a tearful Junko Fujiwara, 37, a secretary at the elementary-school-turned- shelter in the northern coastal town of Kesennuma. “It’s cold and dark here, so we need everything: food, water, electricity, gasoline, candles.”
Soon after the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, the U.S. military began what it calls Operation Tomodachi (Friend), one of its largest relief efforts in recent years. At present, about 20 U.S. ships have massed off Japan’s northeastern coast, including the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered carrier whose helicopters are busily ferrying supplies to survivors.
That relief is getting through to sometimes difficult-to-reach coastal areas devastated by the March 11 double disaster. They are also the latest showcase in the Pentagon’s efforts to use its forces to win goodwill for the U.S. abroad, a strategy that it used successfully in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami there.
The Japan disaster’s toll
9,099 Number of confirmed deaths (but likely to top 18,000)
13,786 Reported missing
268,510 In shelters
