AOMORI--At the foot of Mount Iwakisan on Jan. 10, a woman entered the Kojuen center for orphans and needy children in Tsuruta town and handed an envelope to staff members.
AOMORI--At the foot of Mount Iwakisan on Jan. 10, a woman entered the Kojuen center for orphans and needy children in Tsuruta town and handed an envelope to staff members.
“I was only asked to do so by my acquaintance,” she said, declining to give her name. She left without saying another word.
The envelope contained 200,000 yen (about $2,500) in cash and a letter signed “a tuna fisherman of Oma.”
Since the end of the New Year’s holiday season this year, similar envelopes, letters--and cash--have been presented to five similar facilities for children in Aomori Prefecture.
The identities of the woman and the generous fisherman remain unknown.
Oma is a coastal town in the northernmost part of Aomori Prefecture.
The town made headlines on Jan. 5, when a tuna from Oma fetched a record-high price of 56.49 million yen in this year’s first auction held at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.
It is not known if the anonymous donations are related to that tuna.
The letter in the envelope presented to Kojuen read: “Last year, there was the Great East Japan Earthquake. As a person who lives in the same Tohoku region, I felt pain in my heart. This is part of the money I obtained from tuna fishing. Please use it for the children.”
Last year, the Kojuen center received a donation of 380,000 yen in cash from a person calling himself “a tuna fisherman of Oma.”
The enclosed letter at that time read: “I obtained the money by selling my tunas in an auction at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. Please use it (for the children).”
Envelopes containing similar letters and 380,000 yen in cash were also given to the Tokyo metropolitan government’s Child Guidance Office in Shinjuku Ward last year.
“The donation was important money obtained by fishing in the cold sea. We are really thankful (for the donation),” Kojuen’s director, Shunsuke Yamaguchi, 57, said.
Every summer, the Kojuen center has taken children under its care to a two-day summer camp, spending about 500,000 yen. Last summer, however, the camp used the 380,000-yen donation to extend the trip to three days, allowing the children more time to enjoy swimming and fishing in the sea, and taking on the challenge of cooking outdoors.
The center plans to use the 200,000 yen donated this year for the annual summer camp. Officials have already read the latest letter to the children.
Several anonymous cash donations have been made to victims of the March 11 quake and tsunami. In a few cases, bags containing bundles of cash have been left in restrooms with instructions to use the money to help people in the Tohoku region.
The identities of these donors, like the tuna fisherman of Oma, remain a mystery.
“I hope that Oma continues to provide good news for people this year,” said Hirofumi Hamahata, head of the Oma fishermen’s cooperative association.