where there’s smoke there’s fire

Nikon Corporation made a 100 million yen (over 1.2 million USD) donation to the Japanese Red Cross. I believe donating directly to the Japanese Red Cross is the best way to support the relieve efforts in Japan and to ensure that your money will reach the devastated areas. From the US, the easiest way to make a donation is through Google:

Here is a detailed list of charitable organizations currently involved in the relieve efforts in Japan. You can also see Reuters blog and Charitynavigator on how you can help.

NikonRumors.com will donate a portion of its Google AdSense advertising earnings to help those affected by the earthquake.

Google released post-earthquake satellite images of the impacted areas in Japan. You can download the KLM file from their blog and explore it in Google Earth. Those are the before and after satellite images of the Nikon plant in Sendai (click on images for larger view):

The after image was taken on March 13, two days after the earthquake (you can find it in Google Earth by using this address: Sendai Nikon Corporation 277, Aza-hara, Tako, Natori, Miyagi 981-1221):

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Before and after the earthquake satellite images from NASA compared with Google maps

Update #1: it seems that the article was talking about March 14th (Monday) and not about a timeframe of 14 days. The initial Google translation was:

“Miyagi Prefecture factory to produce high-end digital SLR cameras for professionals, announced that it is virtually impossible to resume operations in 14 days“.

Update #2: here is a better translation of the text:

“Nikon announced on 13th that they cannot re-start operation of high-end digital SLR camera  actually from 14th.  The building was not damaged by tsunami but they announced  it is not clear when the plant could be re-started because they cannot expect power and material supply at present.  They are checking production equipment now.”

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