Japanese Volunteers in New York Give Back on March 2011 Quake Anniversary

By Keiichi Nakane / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

14:00 JST, March 12, 2026

NEW YORK — Japanese and Japanese American volunteers in the United States served about 1,000 meals to people in need at a soup kitchen in New York on Wednesday to mark the 15th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The Consulate General of Japan in New York and the Japanese American Association of New York have held the event every March 11 since 2014 to express gratitude for the relief supplies and donations received from the United States following the disaster.

The volunteers plated and served meals, including stir-fried ground meat and green beans with bread.

A 33-year-old woman, whose grandparents in Sendai were among those affected by the subsequent tsunami, said she wanted to cherish the spirit of mutual support in times of hardship.