ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi, Japan -- U.S. service members worked alongside Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members to remove debris and clean the Ishinomaki Technical High School complex here April 1 as part of Operation Field Day, part of the Operation Tomodachi.
The U.S. service members were attached to Joint Support Forces Japan and included Marines and sailors with Combat Logistics Regiment 35, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, and Task Force Fuji along with soldiers from the Army’s 35th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion and an airmen from JSF-Japan command element.
“They’ve identified 11 schools that need aid and assistance to help them get back to where they want to be,” said 2nd Lt. Breane Hapken, Task Force Fuji. “We come out to the schools and someone in charge at the site will tell us what they want done, and we find a way to make it happen.”
The schools are the area of focus for the JSDF and Japanese Government who are focusing on the schools in preparation for reopening the schools in the coming months.
Schools are getting a lot of attention along with other communal areas because they are trying to get the kids back to some sense of normalcy,” Marine Maj. Giuseppe A. Stavale, U.S. Forces Japan. “Putting the kids back in the schools allows the parents to start cleaning up and looking for work and moving along towards normalcy.”
A list of schools were identified by the JGSDF as particularly hard hit and U.S. assistance in cleaning them was coordinated through the Bilateral Coordination Action Team, according to Capt. Adan Maldonado, liaison officer to 5th JGSDF Brigade, with JSF-Japan.
“They are in the lead role and we are in the support role so whatever it is the (JGSDF) and the local governments need us to do, we’ll do it if it’s within our abilities,” said Stavale.
The damage at the school was wide ranging and would have prevented it from resuming normal functions if not for clean-up efforts.
“If you walk around here, you see how much debris there is ranging from semi trucks to scooters, homes and a lot of sharp nails and glass that are dangerous to the students at the school,” said Maldonado.
JSF-Japan service members also took the opportunity to distribute backpacks filled with food and toys to the school’s students and teachers of the school.
“Girl Scouts from Camp Zama got together and decided they wanted to put backpacks together for the students of the affected schools and through that process they gained momentum with the American community and the local Japanese community,” said Maldonado. “They put candy and toys in them and collected over 300 backpacks.”
"It’s crucial that we are side-by-side with them, that we are here alongside to aid and help them anyway they need,” said Hapken. “We have a great relationship right now, and we want to keep that going.”