Japan team starts rescue effort

QINGCHUAN, China--The first contingent of an emergency relief team from Japan began rescue work here Friday after a snarl-up in communications left members stuck elsewhere with little to do.

Members of the Japanese emergency relief team search for survivors Friday in a collapsed hospital drmitory in Qiaozhuang, part of Qingchuan county in Sichuan province.(TERUO KASHIYAMA/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)

The team is the first that Chinese authorities have allowed from abroad since Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit.

Team members eventually began work in Qiaozhuang, searching for three people believed trapped in a collapsed six-storied hospital dorm. Among those believed trapped are a 28-year-old woman and her 70-day-old daughter.

The first contingent made up of 31 members arrived by air early Friday in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. They left in two buses for Qingchuan county, about 400 kilometers away.

The team's initial destination was the town of Guangzhuang.

According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry official, local government officials specifically asked that the Japanese emergency relief team be sent to Guangzhuang as the site for relief work.

However, the team was taken to an area where an entire hamlet of about 120 households along with an elementary school had been buried by a landslide.

The exposed mountain side extended for about 2 kilometers and parts of the hamlet were buried in up to 80 meters of dirt and rocks.

There were five other large landslides in the same area and local officials feared that backed up rainwater could flood villages downstream if the dam-like ground formations gave way.

Local officials had hoped that a Japanese hydrological expert could help make the area safer.

However, Takashi Koizumi, head of the emergency relief team, said: "Our expertise is in rescuing people from collapsed buildings. We have only a small team and do not have the heavy machinery necessary. Unfortunately, we cannot be of help here."

The decision was then made to move the team to Qiaozhuang about 30 kilometers away.

According to reports, about 80 percent of homes in Qingchuan county were destroyed due to the earthquake. With a population of about 250,000, officials have already confirmed 1,500 deaths and 10,000 injuries in the county.

About 130,000 members of the People's Liberation Army have been called out to help in the rescue effort, but they have been hampered by a lack of equipment and supplies.

Other nations were also sending emergency relief teams to the quake-stricken area.

On Friday, Beijing decided to accept emergency relief teams from Russia, South Korea and Singapore as well.

Japan's emergency relief team will be joined by a second contingent of 30 members that arrived in Chengdu on Friday afternoon.

The team will use rescue dogs and fiber scopes to search for victims.

One member of the special rescue task force of the Tokyo Fire Department said at Chengdu airport, "Because of the moisture from the rains, I believe there are still survivors in the area. I am prepared to see a hellish scene, but I want to rescue as many Chinese as possible."

A Chinese Foreign Ministry official who greeted the first contingent at Chengdu airport said, "I hope you will use your experience coming from a nation that has many earthquakes."(IHT/Asahi: May 17,2008)