The sailors of the San Diego-based USS Harpers Ferry got a special thank you from the people of Japan, a little more than a year after the crew helped provide post-tsunami and earthquake assistance as part of Operation Tomodachi.
A Japanese organization called "Helping Hands" sent photographs and origami cranes containing thank you messages to the Harpers Ferry sailors, according to Navy Public Affairs Support Element West.
Helping Hands founder Masako Sullivan said the thank you gifts were a small token of the enormous gratitude the people of Japan have for those in the Navy who participated in Operation Tomodachi:
"I knew that a lot of Sailors donated blankets, clothes and a lot of personal items. I knew it wasn't because the Navy told them to, but because they really wanted to help people. It was beyond the Navy's job. I wanted the people of Japan to continue remembering those things and give something back to the Navy."
