March 24, 2011 9:58 AM EDT
The immense tragedy in Japan has brought out waves of support, comfort and succor from volunteers seeking to provide help if any kind, even by people who themselves have suffered terribly during the current crisis.
In Saitama prefecture north of Tokyo, so many volunteers flooded the Super Arena – usually a venue for musical concerts – to tend to the needs of evacuees gathered there that many had to be turned away, according to media reports.
Not even a downpour and cold weather dissuaded the volunteers.
The evacuees, who were moved to Saitama from their homes near the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima, also received a mountain of boxes of food, clothes, supplies and emergency aid.
Saitama prefectural authorities were taken aback by the largesse since they made no official call for volunteers or donations.
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“It was very difficult to turn people away,” said an official in Saitama, according to local media.
Another woman volunteer told reporters: “We hope this will help. Everyone wants to do something.”
Volunteers in Saitama are primarily working on food distribution, garbage separation and emergency aid.
The huge metropolis of Tokyo has opened up shelters for tsunami survivors from the Tohoku area.
Some evacuees at the Tokyo Budokan – a world-famous performance arena – were given hot meals for the first time in weeks. Many of the people at Budokan were sent from the Fukushima prefecture.
"I really appreciate a hot meal because we hadn't had it for a while," said Nanami Nitama, a 22-year-old nursery school teacher from Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, according to local media.
Budokan has been supported by volunteers from the Nippon Seikokai (Anglican Church in Japan) and another nonprofit organization who cooked rice and miso soup with meat and vegetables .
The Tokyo municipal government has also opened two other temporary shelters: Ajinomoto Stadium in Chofu (which can accommodate 1,600 people) and Tokyo Big Sight in Koto Ward, which can take care of 3,000 evacuees.
Even foreign immigrants in Japan are helping victims.
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