Honest Japanese Return $78 Million in Cash Found in Quake Rubble:
By Niranjala:
What comes out of a person when their world has collapsed all around them, reveals the true character of a person. One cannot find the real character of a person when the persons circumstances are not contrary to their expectations. It is easy to be agreeable, civilized, well mannered when everthing works according to ones expecations. The Japanese have demonstrated to the 21st century post modern world that they would not sell their soul for monetary gain. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul ? asked a great man who once walked the earth. God is smiling from heaven when we do not take the path of least resistance. It is also said that " if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small ". They deserve a prize greater than nobel prize for this, for they have behaved nobly and honourably.
They know how to rebuild their country, for they have borne adversity before and are not strangers to it. They never missed the opportunity to demonstrate to us , who complain when there is a minor rain shower that aborts our plans for the day. What a bunch of whiners we are !!! What a country. God bless them. I would love to be part of this society. Yes, one of their leaders made a foolish decision to drop a bomb on pearl harbour and for that they paid a heavy prize. However they have not wasted time resenting the perpetrators, they forgave them, moved on and rebuilt their country all over again unlike many other nations, that have NOT UNDERSTOOD the fundamental basic tenet of life and keep on warring , fighting, wasting , resources, effort , energy , money , and most of all precious lives. Down through human history there always have been leaders in many different civilizations, who were downright evil, sociopaths, given over to do the works of the evil one and there will be more in the time that is left. Make no mistake about that.
Recent events in Vancouver and London England Roman Empire 's decline was not caused by an invading army from outside. There is a propensity in our DNA to make deeply poor choices. Only high standards of morality and practice of ethics, will exalt a nation and provide economic prosperity and stablity. However the nations that have enjoyed economic prospertiy since the second world war have begun to decline morally, ethically and have begun to disintegrate. For the inordinate LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. How am I going to respond when I am placed in a similar circumstance ? That is the all important question ?
by Kagees:
I am not surprised. Honesty has always been part of the Japanese culture. And besides they don't say "Finders keepers loosers weepers." in Japan
by Taofledermaus:
AND there was no looting or violence after the tsunami. Everyone was polite and respectable even in those horrific days after it hit. Awesome country!
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Honest Japanese Return $78 Million in Cash Found in Quake Rubble
The earthquake and tsunami that walloped Japan Japan
The National Police Agency says nearly all the valuables found in the three hardest hit prefectures, have been returned to their owners. "In most cases, the keyholes on these safes were filled with mud," said Koetsu Saiki with the Miyagi Prefectural Police. "We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors with grinders and other tools." Determining who the safes belonged to, proved to be the easy part. Saiki says most kept bankbooks or land rights documents inside the boxes, containing their names and address. Tracking the owners down, was much more challenging.
Total of $78 Million Was Returned to Owners in Wake of Japan
"The fact that these safes were washed away, meant the homes were washed away too," he said. "We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to."
Saiki says Miyagi police fanned out across the region, searching for names of residents posted at evacuation centers, digging through missing person reports at town halls, sorting through change of address forms at the post office, to see if the owner had moved away. When they couldn't find the documents, police called listed cell phone numbers, met with mayors or village leaders to see if they recognized the names. The number of safes continued to increase as the clearing of tsunami debris led to more discoveries. Police stations struggling to find space for them housed the valuables in parking garages and meeting rooms.
Saiki says 20 percent of the 2,450 safes found in Miyagi turned out to be empty. But, the remaining 250 boxes contained much more than cash. Some included bars of gold, antiques, even crafted boxes containing a child's umbilical cord, a common memento of child birth. Police had to delicately comb through the keepsakes, since many of the items were damaged, after being soaked in seawater and mud for days or weeks.
The stashing of cash in safes isn't a unique problem in Japan
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Honest Japanese return $78million in cash found in earthquake rubble
By David Gardner
Last updated at 6:54 PM on 17th August 2011
Japanese citizens have shown incredible honesty in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that brought the country to its knees. It emerged yesterday that the Japanese returned almost $78million in cash found in the quake rubble. In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets and purses found in the debris, containing nearly $30 million in cash.
Amidst the rubble: Police officers in protective suits searching for victims after the tsunami hit Fukushima Prefecture in Minamisoma City in March More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along the coastline have also been hauled to police stations by volunteers and rescue crews. Inside the safes officials found about $30million in cash. In one safe alone, there was the equivalent of $1,000,000. Other contained gold bars, antiques and other valuables. Japan
At one point, there were so many safes handed in to police that they had difficulty finding room to store them.
Even now, Koetsu Saiki, of the Miyagi Prefectural Police, said a handful of safes are handed in every week. It is not unusual for the Japanese to keep large amounts of money at home and at offices, particularly in the coastal regions where fisheries companies prefer to deal with cash transactions. From early April to late July, Ofunato Police Station hired three safe specialists to help open the safes it had recovered.
‘In most cases, the keyholes on these safes were filled with mud," said Mr Saiki. ‘We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors with grinders and other tools. ‘The fact that these safes were washed away, meant the homes were washed away too. 'We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to.’ ‘There must be some safes that were stolen after the quake. 'But the fact that a hefty 2.3 billion yen in cash has been returned to its owners shows the high level of ethical awareness in the Japanese people,’ said Ryuji Ito, professor emeritus at Yokohama City University
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Japanese return $78 million found in earthquake rubble
By Nadine Bells | Good News
The Lighter Side often writes about honest strangers returning lost wallets full of cash to their owners, but this story takes integrity to the national level. Since Japan
By mid-July, 96 per cent of the safes' contents had been returned to owners, thanks to bankbooks, legal documents and addresses found inside. Police says that about 85 per cent of the loose cash from wallets and handbags had also been reunited with its owners. Why so many safes filled with cash? ABC News spoke with Koetsu Saiki of the Miyagi Prefectural Police.
"The stashing of cash in safes isn't a unique problem in Japan
"The fact that a hefty 2.3 billion yen ($30 million) in cash has been returned to its owners shows the high level of ethical awareness in the Japanese people," Ryuji Ito, professor emeritus at Yokohama City University
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