Japanese crisis: Premier Kan tells his people: We will rebuild our nation from scratch

Published on Friday 18 March 2011 17:41

PRIME minister Naoto Kan yesterday urged the Japanese people to help rebuild their country "from scratch" as his government acknowledged it had been overwhelmed by the scale of the natural disasters.

In a rallying cry to his embattled nation, Mr Kan sought to evoke the spirit that had helped Japan recover in the wake of the Second World War, and sought to harness "the power of the people" for the Herculean rebuilding effort ahead.

Dressed in an emergency services uniform, the 64-year-old vowed the government would take "firm control" of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear complex.

"We will overcome this tragedy and recover," he said in a nationwide address. "We will once more rebuild Japan."

Calling the crises a "great test for the Japanese people", he asked for the help of a bruised and battered people to aid an estimated five-year reconstruction effort, which economists at Goldman Sachs believe could cost 125 billion.

Mr Kan said: "While we have been called a small island country, we were able to miraculously rebuild after the war. With the power of the people, we will rebuild this country.

"Because of this quake and tsunami, we cannot falter at any cost. We will rebuild Japan again from scratch. We will face this crisis with determination."

With the humanitarian catastrophe entering a second week, Mr Kan's reflective mood was shared by the nation yesterday.

After seven days of chaos and strife, survivors of the twin disasters and aid workers paused at 2:46pm to remember those who had perished, with the latest death toll standing at 6,911 and a further 10,754 missing.

The occasion also gave the authorities a chance to assess their reaction to the crisis, with officials admitting they had struggled to cope with the aftermath.

Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, said: "The unprecedented scale of the earthquake and tsunami, frankly speaking, were among many things that happened that had not been anticipated under our disaster management contingency plans.

"In hindsight, we could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation and co-ordinating all that information and provided it faster."

While the focus tentatively turned yesterday towards long-term recovery, relief organisations warned that the arduous task of ensuring the welfare of people in the worst-affected regions was far from over.

Stephen McDonald, a Scot working with Save the Children, said: "As we push up the coastline from Sendai, we are finding pockets of profound humanitarian need, and we're going to do everything we can to meet them while remaining focused on our child protection work."