Operation Tomodachi

This website was created and maintained from May 2020 to May 2021 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Stars and Stripes operations in the Pacific.
It will no longer be updated, but we encourage you to explore the site and view content we felt best illustrated Stars and Stripes' continued support of the Pacific theater since 1945.

From Tohoku to Tyndall, Air Force dependent faced down two historic natural disasters

Brianne Engle may be one of the few people affiliated with the U.S. military to be front and center for two historic natural disasters in two parts of the world, seven years apart.

In this photo taken by former Stars and Stripes reporter Tim Flack, the coastal fishing village of Ofunato, Japan, looks like a war zone following the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.

From a phone call, interrupted, emerged two sides of Japan’s most powerful earthquake

Former Stars and Stripes journalist Grant Okubo remembers being on the phone with a colleague at Misawa Air Base when bottles started shaking in his home near Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.

Navy spouses continue outreach project for Fukushima residents

The Fukushima disaster victims were gathered at the Kawasaki community center, eagerly awaiting a blanket or a pair of sandals, when Masako Sullivan first walked in the door.

Yokota transforms into hub of U.S. military's earthquake relief operations

Just minutes after a massive earthquake struck northern Japan on March 11, several flights bound for Narita International Airport were descending on this air base on the western edge of Tokyo.

At Sendai Airport, Biden praises recovery efforts in Japan

Five months ago, more than 1,000 people took shelter at Sendai Airport as a massive tsunami crashed against the terminal in a rush of water, mud, trees, garbage, wrecked cars and dead bodies.

Army veteran Matt Szymanski, fifth from left with the U.S. flag patch on his hat, helps a group of Marines, airmen and sailors attempt to lift a giant piece of debris while helping clean Noda Village, about a two-hour drive from Misawa Air Base, Japan, during a March 29 trip.

Michigan vet flies to Misawa on his own to help

Matt Szymanski was sitting in his Michigan home watching in disbelief as the first images of the devastation in northern Japan were broadcast on the news.

Petty Officer 2nd Class James Rivers looks out the side of a Seahawk helicopter at the tsunami damage along the coastline of northeastern Japan during a humanitarian relief supply mission in Iwate Prefecture.

Navy crews reach quake victims with life-sustaining humanitarian aid

Petty Officer 2nd Class James Rivers became the face of the U.S. military’s humanitarian relief efforts for hundreds of Japanese people this week.