Taking into account the widespread destruction caused by the Tsunami, Amma had announced a donation of one million US dollars towards the relief and rehabilitation of the disaster victims, particularly for the education of children who lost both their parents. The announcement was made at a crowded public program in the Grand Ballroom of the Garden City Shinagawa hotel. Mr. Keiki Soma, representative of the Miyagi Governor and Deputy Director of the Miyagi Prefectural Government Office were also present on this occasion.
On Friday, 11th March 2011, a massive undersea earthquake measuring 9.1 in the Richter scale occurred off the Pacific coast of Japan at 05:46 UTC. The disaster had caused destruction in an unprecedented scale and the latest estimates of Japanese National Police Agency had confirmed 15,896 deaths, 6,157 injured, and 2,537 people missing in the national tragedy. In addition, the catastrophe had left around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan without electricity and 1.5 million homes without water. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the disaster as the toughest and the most difficult crisis met by Japan since the end of World War II.
