Easter Island statue to give hope to tsunami-hit town

The new statue - an original, not a replica like its predecessor—will be exhibited in Tokyo and Osaka before arriving in Minami-Sanriku in May.

I hope they don't put the Moai statue in the same location as the old statue. Otherwise when the next tsunami hits, the real Moai statue is going to be destroyed just like the replica.

Just in time for Easter.

Seems a strange gift, such a thing from an extinct race of people long gone leaving only stone monuments that no one is quite sure how they were built on a deserted island that suffered environmental disaster that probably forcing the population to fight and starve to death and evacuate or migrate. VERY STRANGE.

I hope they don't put the Moai statue in the same location as the old statue.

It will be put at the Minamisanriku Sun Sun Shopping Village which opened in February last year with a five-year time frame. Village is on higher ground near a junior high school that was used as an evacuation centre.

Me think getting me out of a temp house and helping me find a new job will give me more hope than a miracle tree and a stone statue.

Me think getting me out of a temp house and helping me find a new job will give me more hope than a miracle tree and a stone statue.

Which do you think is harder? Which do you think is government-run and which is a donation from the public or from abroad?

It looks like municipal apartments might be a solution for permanent housing for many. If you can build a house, that would be great. Thanks.

Me think getting me out of a temp house and helping me find a new job will give me more hope than a miracle tree and a stone statue.

Is this the kind of response I can expect from some every time a country, NPO or the public donates or contributes in a non-building-house kind of way? I think so. I also think that said people are not as concerned as they pretend to be, otherwise they would learned by now that is not as simple as they would like to complain.

It shows kind feelings

Me think getting me out of a temp house and helping me find a new job will give me more hope than a miracle tree and a stone statue.

As someone who nearly died from disease last year, I can tell you on the road to recovery a simple act of kindness can be worth more than all the material goods in the world.

Japan loves to living in the victim mentality, money, housing, food and jobs would have been much better!

Crony businesses will profit transporting stones which could topple or hurt if tripped up against. Better spend public money on green sustainable life improving projects.

"... stones which could topple or hurt if tripped up against."

Finally, the riddle of the extinction of the Easter Islanders is solved!

I appreciate the gift, but it leaves me with a mixed feeling. These statues history is unknown and they have been built for some reasons at these places. Having them moved to another location, regardless of Japan or any kind of museums worldwide does not have my favor. Like having these Egyptian mummies displaced to western museum.

Exposing them for a while to share culture, yes, but indefinite displacement ... I am not sure.

@Open Minded

I'd agree with you in the case of Egyptian mummies, but moai statues are a bit different; fully half of them (over 400) are just lying in the quarry where they were originally carved; they haven't been positioned in any sense. I'm sure it'll be one of these that Chile sends, not one set in a group.

@Open Minded: I think it is newly made not an old one. The other thing is that is a lot of history to why these were built.

@Open Minded: My bad, didn't read the last line "The new statue—an original, not a replica"

Nice. Now just need to get the Govt. to do more work on rebuilding tje town itself.

The statue was at the Maru Building in Tokyo today. It is a nice gesture.

So what is Chile saying? Didn't the people of Easter Island almost go extinct because of deforestation and ecological mismanage partially related to the moai?