Four Christian Volunteers from Hong Kong were detained by police at the Morooka Kominkan Emergency Housing shelter in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture.
Three Hong Kong Missionaries, residents of nearby Toyama and a friend visiting from Hong Kong, touched by the reports they had seen on TV of the 7.1 earthquake that hit Northern Japan took a day off work to visit the site of the disaster.
Arriving in Wajima they were careful to officially register at the local Volunteer Center.
Upon registration they were sent to the Morooka Kominkan where nearly 250 townspeople – mostly elderly were staying.
Receiving a nametag with their names on at approximately 1:30PM on Wednesday, March 28, they proceeded to their assigned place to assist in the disaster efforts.
“Upon arriving at the facility at approximately 2PM we inquired as to where we were to start helping the people. Just as we began our work a policewoman came up to us and demanded our Passports.”
We were quite surprised at the “welcome” to us that had come from so far to help those in need at the earthquake site. Three of us showed our Alien Registration Cards and the fourth who was visiting for a few days from Hong Kong had simply left her Passport at home as we had left in a hurry.”
Normally a simple confirmation would have elicited a Passport Number and faxed copy of the document if needed.
Instead the local Anamizu Police Station according to the Hong Kong volunteers kept them for nearly two hours – from 2PM until nearly 4PM - at the Moorooka Kominkan or public hall in a small room.
From there at approximately 4PM they were taken to the local police station for another nearly two hours of interrogation finally being let go at approximately 6pm.
According to representative Kazunori Ueda of the Anamizu Police Station “we only spoke with them for an hour or so and as there were no problems found they were allowed to proceed with their volunteer activities.”
Confirmation with the hapless Chinese volunteers elicited a very strong reaction to the discrepancy.
Kanazawa, the capitol of Ishikawa Prefecture is the site for the upcoming G7 Summit and initial reactions to the incident have been calls for the site of the summit to be moved to a more hospitable location in Japan.
Japanese volunteer Yoshitaka Ishihara, present at much of the interrogation expressed shock at the way those coming to help were treated.
“It was shocking to see the way these people who had come to help us Japanese in need as a result of the earthquake were treated. It was unacceptable and I am embarrassed as a Japanese to have seen the terrible treatment to those that came to help. They should move the Summit to another location.
Calls for moving the summit to another location is growing and a reaction from the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo to the unprecedented treatment of its Citizens who tried to help with the Noto Earthquake are expected.
The Noto region of Japan has historic precedent in that it was one of the last areas where the `Ikki` or peasent uprising, mostly by Kirishitan or Indigenous Japanese Christians went on for n
early 100 years.
Although nominally seen as a democratic country with the rule of law, incidents such as this show the dark side of a country that continues to persecute the weak, have an unaceptable reaction to foreigners and a very weak legal system.
Whether Japan can be a world leader while at the same time acting in such a manner is a question many in the region are asking, particularly as the nation rearms, continues to deny wartime responsibility and begins preparations to change its peaceful constitution.
Thanks for writing this.
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