Britain's Prince William will conclude his visit to Japan on Sunday whose jovial, yet caring manner has hugely endeared him to the Japanese public and launched "William Fever" as the nation can see so many of his mother's charm points bestowed on her eldest son.
Prince William on Sunday visited an area of Japan devastated by the March 2011 earthquake-triggered tsunami that obliterated swathes of land, homes and buildings and ultimately washed away the lives of some 16,000 people across 20 coastal prefectures.
The prince met with survivors of the disaster in Miyagi Prefecture, having visited neighboring Fukushima Prefecture a day earlier to play with children in a charity run park, just a stone' s throw away from the Daiichi nuclear power plant, whose defenses were breached by the massive tsunami, leading to multiple meltdowns in its reactors and an ongoing nuclear crisis, the worst of its kind since Chernobyl in 1986.
William, who is second heir to the throne in Britain after Prince Charles, shared with a couple he met in Ishinomaki city -- one of the regions worst hit by the tsunami -- his deepest sympathy after hearing they had lost both of their children to the tsunami.
The moment was a particularly poignant one for the prince as not only is his wife back in Britain looking after their own child Prince George, the Duchess of Cambridge is also expecting a second child. In addition, the prince is no stranger to grief and heartache, as Princess Diana, his mother, beloved around the world for her charity and humanitarian work, was tragically killed in a car accident in Paris in August 1997 -- an event that profoundly affected the world and still brings tears to the eyes of many.
The couple gave the prince some decorative crafts made form the very wood that was left behind among the debris after the tsunami leveled their city.
The prince once again offered a commemorative bouquet to lives lost, this time to the victims of the quake and tsunami, as he overlooked the devastated region from a hilltop, offering a panorama of the battered region, in the Ishinomaki Bay area.
On Friday the prince was commemorating fallen soldiers at the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Yokohama, where he laid a wreath and offered a silent prayer. The service people from Britain, Canada, Australia and India had died in Japan as prisoners of war during World War II. The Duke of Cambridge also signed his name in the visitors' register and emotionally poured over a photo album containing pictures of Princess Diana. The late princess visited the cemetery during her last visit to Japan in 1995. On the hilltop Sunday, in a touching moment, two young girls gave the prince handmade paper cranes that had been made by evacuees still living in temporary shelters. Such paper cranes in Japan serve as a symbol of hope. "When I handed them to him, he said that his son would like them as a souvenir," said one of the girls.
The prince also took a tour of a local newspaper museum in the region, where he heard that when the earthquake struck, the staff there continued with their duties using paper and pens, instead of their computers as there was a total blackout.
At that time, the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun newspapers, remarkably, where completely handwritten, as their printing presses were offline due to the power outage. "He kindly went to the trouble of coming to the devastated area. I'm sure his visit will give our recovery efforts a boost," commented one of the local reporters.
Prince William, who is scheduled to visit China later Sunday, rang a bell of hope in the town of Onagawa, in a fitting conclusion to his visit to a region in Japan still grappling to deal with the tragic events that occurred almost 4 years ago.
