ISHINOMAKI, Japan, April 10 (UPI) -- U.S. troops working to restore a Japanese high school devastated last month by an earthquake and tsunami were thanked Sunday by Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
Kan visited the school in the northeastern coastal city of Ishinomaki and shook hands with 36 U.S. soldiers and four Marines assisting Japanese soldiers in clearing mud and debris from the sports field, the military Stars and Stripes newspaper reported.
The soldiers were manually shoveling muck and were backed by mini-bulldozers and bucket-loaders, the report said.
One of the U.S. soldiers, Sgt.-Maj. Robert Austin, told the newspaper he sees the same determination among Japanese people as in his hometown of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina slammed it in 2005.
"The devastation here is just tremendous but the people have great energy," he said. "They are motivated to get things cleaned up as fast as they can and get life back to normal."
While much media attention has recently focused on the crisis at the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, much of northern Japan remains in ruins after the March 11 magnitude 9 earthquake and aftershocks ravaged the country followed by a tsunami that washed away entire communities.
