2 December

SENDAI  —   A consecration cer-emony was held on recently for a Buddha statue donated by Myan-mar for victims of the devastat-ing 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan.

Monks  from  the  Southeast  Asian  country,  which  also  suf-fered  damage  from  the  2004  Indian  Ocean  tsunami,  offered  prayers  in  front  of  the  5-me-ter-high  marble  statue  on  25  November.

It was placed last month on a hill overlooking Shizugawa Bay in  the  town  of  Minamisanriku,  Miyagi Prefecture. The hill is in a forest park created by the op-erator of Minami Sanriku Hotel Kanyo to commemorate the disaster  that  left  more  than  15,000  people dead.

A  Myanmar  trading  house  gave  the  statue  to  the  hotel  op-erator, which had shown officials of the company around the disas-ter-hit area.

“While  this  may  be  minus-cule  for  the  rebuilding,  I  hope  it  will  be  a  tourism  resource  to  bring about exchanges between people,”  said  Maung  Htet  Myat  Oo,  the  52-year-old  co-head  of  Tomosada  International  Trad-ing Co.

“I’m  full  of  emotion,  seeing  the  Buddha  statue  installed  in  a place that looks over our com-munity,”  said  Yasuhiro  Abe,  56,  president  of  the  hotel  operator  Abecho Shoten Co.

Abe’s  company  is  known  for  hosting  bus  tours  around  the  disaster-stricken  coastal  area  and  keeping  the  remains  of a tsunami-hit wedding center, where more than 300 people took refuge. — Kyodo News