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In 1995 an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit Kobe, Japan leaving some 6,000 people dead in just a few days. Railways and roads linked to Kobe were severely damaged, delaying relief efforts. But many people headed to Kobe on foot or bicycle. They rescued victims from under the rubble, fed them and helped restore services in the destroyed city one by one. Many people worked as volunteers for about a year after the earthquake. The total number of volunteers reached 1.38 million. It was a marvelous new record for Japan, a country that had no strong history of voluntarism until that time.
¢ºTwo years later, waters off Mikuni, Fukui Prefecture, Japan were contaminated by a heavy-oil spill from the Russian tanker Nakhodka which had broken up in stormy weather. Experienced volunteers from the quake-devastated city of Kobe immediately rushed to Mikuni. They wanted to show the Mikuni residents how to organize on a large scale and overcome a crisis. Some 300,000 volunteers arrived from across Japan to clean up the beaches. In two and a half months they had cleaned up nearly all the oil from each oil-smeared pebble. It was nothing short of a miracle.
¢ºWith the Kobe earthquake and the oil spill in Mikuni, Japanese people awoke to the power of voluntarism. In 1998 Japan passed the Non-Profit Organization Act, paving the way for volunteer organizations to register as corporate bodies and benefit from tax breaks. The number of volunteer organizations increased from 60,000 in 1994 to 120,000 in 2003. In the U.S., a country where volunteer work is a kind of daily routine, about a half of American adults participate in various kinds of volunteer activities for three to four hours a week. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks so many people volunteered to participate in the rescue work at ground zero, where the World Trade Center buildings had once stood, that the mayor of New York City had to turn them away to keep them from crowding the area.
¢ºAmerican volunteers follow a few principles when doing volunteer work on the spot. First of all, they begin with easy work, avoiding the most difficult jobs at first. They think and act from the standpoint of those who need their help, so that they can provide sustained services. The residents of Mikuni tried to make systematic use of volunteers' services by taking a lesson from the volunteer activities in Kobe. Volunteer leaders advised other volunteers to take care of their own health and safety above all.
¢ºSome 100,000 volunteers have rushed to Taean, South Chungcheong Province, the site of the nation's worst-ever oil spill. College students arrived after taking their end-of-term exams. Employees of a company began volunteer work after first removing their company logo patches from their uniforms, for fear that people might misunderstand that they working for publicity for their company. Even foreigners rushed to the devastated beaches, pledging to repay the kindness of Korea's people. If local residents and volunteers join hands and efforts with each other, they too can do wonders as the villagers of Mikuni did 10 years ago. Then our volunteer culture will be enhanced to a higher level.
The column was contributed by Chosun Ilbo in-house columnist Kang In-sun.
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