Cats Saved Islanders
The 3/11 Great Tsunami of Japan also hit a small island where 110 people, mostly aged persons, live.
The island is well known for cats. There are more cats than residents of this fishing village. Even tourists come to see cats while cultivation of oysters is the main industry of the island.
A 10-meter high tsunami of the last year destroyed oyster cultivation facilities. People were lost in the tiny island as rescue and recovery work was slow in islands in the tsunami affected areas of east Japan.
So, some people came to think about cats, since almost 80 cats were found to survive the tsunami. (Indeed, before the 3/11 Tsunami, 12,300 visitors came in a year to the island from the outside to see cats.) They started to make cat goods, ask help on the Internet, and send back cat goods when receiving financial aid.
It was estimated to need $1.25 million to rebuilt oyster cultivation facilities the Tsunami destroyed. But this campaign could draw $1.87 million (150 million yen) from people all over Japan in months. Each contributor received cat goods in exchange of their good will. (They have already stopped receiving financial contribution as enough funds were collected.)
And now, people and cats are living peacefully in the island once hit by a great tsunami.
Tashirojima is a small island in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It lies in the Pacific Ocean off the Oshika Peninsula, to the west of Ajishima. It is an inhabited island, although the population is quite small (around 100 people, down from around 1000 people in the 1950s[1]). It has become known as "Cat Island" due to the large stray cat population that thrives as a result of the local belief that feeding cats will bring wealth and good fortune. The cat population is now larger than the human population on the island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashirojima
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Mar 3:15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: