Hawaii residents who wish to donate to the Japan relief effort have several local options.
- First Hawaiian Bank has donated $100,000 and has established a Japan-Hawaii Relief Fund. Donations will be accepted at all of the bank’s branches until March. 31. All contributions will go to the Japanese Red Cross Society.
- Central Pacific Bank will accept donations at all of its branches until April 15. Make checks payable to the American Red Cross and include “Japan Earthquake” on the memo section.
- Hawaii National Bank will accept donations, which will go to the American Red Cross, at all of its locations.
- All L&L Hawaiian Barbecue locations will collect donations for the American Red Cross. Make checks payable to the American Red Cross. No cash.
- Information on charities providing relief can be found at www.charitynavigator.org. Donations can also be made at www.redcross.org.
- To text a donation, text REDCROSS to 90999 and make a $10 contribution.
- Additionally, Verizon is making calls to Japan free for most wireless and residential customers through April 10. Customers with Verizon World Plan can call Japan without using any minutes from their time-allotment blocks.
- Oceanic Time Warner Cable is providing free phone calls to Japan for Digital Phone customers. It will also broadcast around-the-clock coverage of the recovery effort from Japan on NGN2 (TV Japan) Ch. 678.
I am Japanese living in Tokyo. First, thank you so much for kind helps and warming messages from Hawaii. We are still facing troubles many people got heartbroken. Many people are still missing, dying and can’t find their loved one. But I strongly believe we still have hope.
I heard from my fiance that many Japanese and Japanses Americans in Hawaii still can’t confirm thier relatives’ and friends’ safety. Unfortunately, we still can’t get the correct infomation yet. Google Japan just opened the new service : http://picasaweb.google.com/tohoku.anpi. This is the finder list people in refugee places took a photo of. Sorry, most of them are written in Japanese. I’d be glad it would help you a lot. I really pray for your loved one’s safety.