Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • March 7, 2012 Glen Rock Mayor reaches out to Japanese friends in Onomachi by John Koster Glen Rock Mayor John van Keuren has reached out with encouragement to the borough’s sister city of Onomachi, Japan, a country town on the fringe of the tsunami disaster area. “A year has passed since the terrible tragedy without warning befell our friends in Japan,” Mayor van Keuren said at the Leap Day borough council meeting. “We grieved for them then and we celebrate their recovery now and hope that nothing like that will ever happen to our friends in Onomachi and the rest of Japan again.” Onomachi middle school students, teachers, and administrators visit Glen Rock each summer for a one-week stay with local host families and visits to New York City and the Glen Rock Municipal Pool. Some host families have also visited Onomachi and maintain contact with their Japanese former guests by e-mail or telephone, and the news of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown prompted a special 2011 meeting at Glen Rock Borough Hall at which host families and other residents made a video that was sent to Onomachi offering prayers, support, and financial aid. The Onomachi council urged Glen Rock residents to send the money to those Japanese in the Sendai region who lived closer to the coast and lost homes and relatives. The tsunami killed an estimated 20,000 people and destroyed entire communities. The earthquake was reported as the worst tremor in Japan in 1,000 years. While seawalls and electronic warning devices saved thousands of lives, the wreckage was catastrophic to the entire region. Local Japanese and Koreans with relatives living in Japan spent frantic days trying to contact their friends and families. The Onomachi families in fact sheltered fugitives from the nuclear pall, so much so that the Onomachi school was shut down for some time while it was used as a shelter. (continued on page 10) Mayor John van Keuren