Korban Tsunami Jepang Terima Emas Batangan Tanpa Nama

Mystery Gold Gifts for Tsunami-wracked Japan Port

Editor : Heru S Winarno
Translator : Parulian Manalu


Korban Tsunami Jepang Terima Emas Batangan Tanpa Nama
Ilustrasi: brecorder.com

WARGA sebuah daerah di Jepang yang tahun 2011 lalu terkena tsunami menerima kiriman berisi emas batangan dari seorang pengirim tak diketahui.

Paket emas batangan itu muncul di di Ishinomaki, pefektur Miyagi, sekitar 10 hari yang lalu.

Kunio Suno, Presiden Ishinomaki Fish Market Co Ltd, perusahaan yang mengelola pelabuhan dan perikanan desa tersebut, mengatakan ia menerima sebuah paket berisi dua emas batangan seberat masing-masing 1 kilogram.

"Karena tulisannya 'aneka barang', saya buka," kata Suno seperti dikutip ChannelNewsAsia.

Suno terkejut mendapati emas 24 karat berjumlah dua batang. "Satu terbungkus di kertas cokelat, satu lagi dengan kertas koran, keduanya terletak di bungkusan yang menggelembung," kata Suno.

Tidak ada pesan atau pun alamat yang tertera di paket itu, meski paket itu diduga berasal dari kota Nagano.

Suno mengatakan ia akan menggunakan uang itu untuk membangun kembali pasar ikan Ishinomaki.

Yoshie Kaneko dari Ishinomaki Revival Support Network, yang juga menerima dua emas batangan mengatakan "kami sangat menghargai donatur. Kami tidak akan menyia-nyiakannya."

Pada 11 Maret 2011, gempa berkekuatan 9 skala Richter dan tsunami besar melanda Jepang. Bencana itu menewaskan sekitar 19.000 jiwa dan memicu kebocoran nuklir.

Ishinomaki terletak 350 kilometer ke arah timur laut dari Tokyo. 3.000 penduduknya tewas akibat bencana dan 40.000 bangunan hancur.

A JAPANESE city devastated by the 2011 tsunami has received anonymous gifts of gold worth more than $250,000 in a phenomenon dubbed a "goodwill gold rush" ahead of the second anniversary of the disaster.

The president of the company which operates the port in the northeastern city of Ishinomaki last week received a parcel containing two slabs of gold each weighing one kilogram (2.2 pounds).

"Since it was labelled as 'miscellaneous goods,' I casually opened the box," thinking it must be books or the like as it was heavy, said Kunio Sunow, president of the Ishinomaki Fish Market Co. Ltd.

"I was stunned because what's in there was 24k gold in two plates. One was wrapped in brown paper and the other in a page taken from a magazine -- both were sitting in bubble sheets," he told.

The parcel had been sent anonymously from Nagano city northwest of Tokyo with no message.

"Just looking at 24k gold can encourage people as it has a presence. It's great to know we haven't been forgotten," Sunow said, adding he had not yet decided how to use the gift.

The city, some 350 kilometres (220 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was devastated by the 9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami it generated on March 11, 2011.

The disaster killed nearly 19,000 people, including more than 3,000 in Ishinomaki, and sparked the world's worst nuclear accident in a generation.