The world attends to Japan in recovering from tsunami and earthquakes

The work of rebuilding after last week’s powerful earthquakes and tsunami in Japan is underway already, even as aid organizations reach out to the injured and those whose homes were damaged or destroyed. Efforts to stabilize nuclear reactors continue amid continuing earthquakes and aftershocks around the country.

Among the many organizations on hand to help are:

• AmeriCares www.americares.org/
• Global Giving www.globalgiving.org/projects/japan-earthquake-tsunami-relief
• International Medical Corps www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/
• Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders www.msf.org/
• Oxfam International www.oxfam.org.uk/
• Red Cross www.redcross.org/
• Salvation Army International www.salvationarmy.org
• Save the Children www.savethechildren.org
• Shelterbox www.shelterbox.org/
• United Nations World Food Programme www.wfp.org/
• World Vision International www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf

Media coverage in a wide variety of formats provides updates as well as technology insights:

• Rush to fix quake-damaged undersea cables (Wall Street Journal)
• Mapping Japan's changed landscape from space (ESA News)
• Satellite photos: Japan before and after tsunami (New York Times)
• Quake shifted Japan by over two meters (Deutsche Welle)
• Japan jolted by new earthquakes (Los Angeles Times)
• Robots help search for survivors (IEEE Spectrum)

Japan is accustomed to experiencing many earthquakes every year, but has seen none as powerful as last Friday’s 8.9-magnitude temblor in recorded history. SPIE President Katarina Svanberg expressed the thoughts of many observers around the world, in reaching out to friends, colleagues, and strangers alike: “Our thoughts are with you in these days of grief and sorrow."