SDF Mission in Quake-Hit Kumamoto to End on Monday

Kumamoto, May 29 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Self-Defense Forces troops who have been engaged in relief activities in the quake-hit southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto are set to end their mission on Monday, Kumamoto Governor Ikuo Kabashima said Sunday. The prefectural government will ask the SDF on Monday to end the relief operations, as reconstruction work has started to get on track more than a month after a 6.5-magnitude temblor, which was the first of a series of strong earthquakes, hit Kumamoto and other parts of the Kyushu region on April 14. On April 16, the 7.3-magnitude main shock struck, followed by a number of aftershocks. At an extraordinary news conference, Kabashima expressed his gratitude for the SDF troops' relief activities and said, "We are now at a point where we will start making our own efforts" for postdisaster reconstruction. Soon after the April 14 foreshock, the prefecture asked for the dispatch of SDF troops. A total of over 700,000 SDF personnel have so far been engaged in such activities as rescuing residents from collapsed houses, supplying water, transporting relief goods and disposing of debris. In late April, as many as about 25,000 SDF troops were working to support affected people per day. Later, their activities were scaled back gradually. The SDF ended its activities in the city of Kumamoto, the capital of the prefecture, on May 10. SDF troops withdrew from the village of Minamiaso on May 19, from the village of Nishihara on May 20 and from the town of Mashiki on Friday. Minamiaso was hit by massive landslides caused by the quakes. In Mashiki, the April 14 foreshock and the April 16 main shock registered the strongest level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7. END