A group of Japanese volunteers has collected seven tonnes of debris from B.C.’s shoreline on Vancouver island.
The group is part of the Japan Love Project and includes 70 student volunteers from 14 different universities around Japan.
The students rolled up their sleeves and got to work on Sunday when they roamed the shoreline around Broken Islands and Pacific Rim National Park, finding many sentimental items.
Hanako Yokota, who supervised the group, says finding various items with ties to Japan has been an emotional experience for everyone involved.
“There were slippers that had Japanese lettering on it. That was shocking. Some of us are from the earthquake epicenter. It is March 11 today, so it’s definitely been emotional.”
WATCH: Japanese students arrive in B.C. to clean up debris from Japan
Yokota says around twenty local residents came out to help them with the clean-up, and on Tuesday the city of Ucluelet held a special memorial for them.
“There was a moment of silence, and following that we greeted each other with a hello, because we never really said hi before we started the project,” says Yokota. “We just kind of came in and started to clean.”
She says the students leave tomorrow with a feeling of a mission accomplished.
“We say that we came here to show our appreciation to the world, but really we are just surprised how much support everybody has given us to make this project happen.”
It is believed as much as 1.5 million tonnes of the Japanese tsunami debris is headed for North America.
Last Friday, B.C. government announced the district of Ucluelet is getting more than $80,000 and dozens of volunteers to help clean up an area spanning 100 kilometers of coastline.
Last March, Japanese government has given Canada one million dollars to help with the coastal clean-up effort.
PHOTO GALLERY: Student volunteers help clean up B.C.’s coast
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