U.S. Forces, Assets Safe After New Japan Quake

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2011 — U.S. forces in Japan pro­vid­ing sup­port after a dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake and tsuna­mi last month appear to have dodged a bul­let as yet anoth­er earth­quake rocked north­east Japan today.
“We have received no reports of injury or dam­age to U.S. forces or assets in Japan,” said Army Maj. Matt Has­son, a pub­lic affairs offi­cer at U.S. Pacif­ic Com­mand. “U.S. forces con­tin­ue to sup­port the gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Japan and are posi­tioned for sus­tained sup­port.”

A mag­ni­tude 7.1 earth­quake, the strongest yet since the March 11 earth­quake and fol­low-on tsuna­mi that left almost 30,000 dead, struck off the coast of Sendai just after 11:30 p.m. local time, offi­cials report­ed. It report­ed­ly last­ed about 30 seconds. 

A warn­ing issued for tsuna­mi waves up to about 3 feet high was can­celled about an hour later. 

Thou­sands of U.S. forces have been assist­ing Japan since the March 11 dis­as­ter dur­ing Oper­a­tion Tomodachi. 

Navy Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the U.S. Pacif­ic Fleet com­man­der, told Amer­i­can Forces Press Ser­vice ear­li­er this week the U.S. mil­i­tary will con­tin­ue to stand square­ly with Japan for as long as need­ed, even as the focus begins to turn from human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance and dis­as­ter relief to con­se­quence management. 

“This is an endur­ing com­mit­ment. This is an endur­ing rela­tion­ship,” Walsh said. “So we are pos­tur­ing our­selves for a long-term sup­port and an endur­ing commitment.” 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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