Fukuoka DRHC in Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture (Image source: Kuromon)

A little over a week ago, I did some searching via Google Images with selected key terms. Although I didn’t necessarily really find what I was searching for, I am presenting here a sample of articles and blogs I had stumbled upon in the process. While all the sites below are in Japanese, I felt they had excellent visual representations of Disaster Relief Hinokishin Corps’ (DRHC) efforts both past and present in addition to photos of damage from the tsunami.

Links to a couple of articles from “Kuromon,” the website of Fukuoka Diocese:

• 福岡教区隊 短報〈４〉 (Fukuoka Diocese DRHC Brief Report #4)
• 内田教区長 被災地視察報告 (Damage Surveillance Report by Diocese Superintendent Uchida)

I also came across the blog of the Shikishima Chapter of the Young Men’s Association. The following article is about how members made takoyaki at Shizugawa Elementary School in Minamisanriku-cho, Miyagi Prefecture:

• 被災地にて炊き出し (Preparing Food in the Disaster Zone)

A couple more blogs by people who participated in the DRHC:

• 鯉太郎の 心 ころころ (Category: DRHC) This blog category has been updated since I first posted this article. Scroll way down for pictures of tsunami damage from Kesennuma (such as the one you see here on the right) on this April 13 post.
• ブログあつたかい This is a blog by a gentleman from Aichi. Click the thumbnails to enlarge the photos.

I also stumbled on a site with photos of DRHC members participating in recovery efforts after the Hanshin Earthquake:

• １９９５年阪神淡路大震災における兵庫教区災害救援ひのきしん隊１０４日の記録 (A Record of the 104-Day Effort of Hyogo Diocese DRHC Members After the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake)

Finally, Ibaraki Prefecture was greatly impacted by the earthquake as well, but since it was mostly spared from the tsunami devastation, news from this part of Japan has been spare at best. Yet the following photo of Ibaraki Diocese Office after the quake from 心のオアシス—茨城の友よりの現況報告 (Spiritual Oasis: A Report from a Friend in Ibaraki) reveals how severe the tremors were:

*Note: This article was updated on May 25th.

Tags: 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, disaster relief, Disaster Relief Hinokishin Corps, Ibaraki