Reports from multiple sources indicate that United States military personnel are aiding Japanese military and civilian personnel in search-and-rescue efforts:
Thousands of Japanese and American military personnel joined together Friday in a final three-day sweep to search for those still missing from last month’s massive earthquake and tsunami.
The operation involves 120 aircraft and 65 ships and will cover the three prefectures hit hardest by the March 11 disaster. More than 11,000 people are confirmed dead, with more than 16,500 still missing. But the search teams will stay out of a 30-kilometer zone around the radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear plant.
Workers have been struggling since the quake to bring the damaged plant under control. Chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said Friday that current circumstances meant that it would be a “reasonably long” period of time before those evacuated from the nuclear-threat zone would be allowed back to their homes.
US, Japanese Forces Search for Missing Tsunami Victims (Voice of America)
A generation or two ago – depending on how one counts, we were engaged in mortal combat with the Japanese. About one generation back, we sold them most of the nuclear reactors which recently ran aground. (We’ve got a bunch of the same reactors in operation in the United States, sold to the Japanese at a time when nuclear power’s risks were less apparent to the people of both countries). We do better, and will in future do better, as allies than as enemies. As sad, and frightening as events in Japan have been, we think it right and fitting that U.S. troops are assisting the Japanese. We wish them all good luck and freedom from mishap in these efforts, which are not without risk.