Minister George Yeo at the Inter-Religious Organisation's gathering to express solidarity with the people of Japan at the Raffles Town Club on 23 March 2011

Speech given by Minister George Yeo at the event:

Ambassador Suzuki, Members of the Japanese Community,

Dear Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen

Our Solidarity

1 We come together this evening to express our solidarity with the people of Japan as they recover from the Tohoku Earthquake, a mammoth tsunami and the nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

2 We join the people of Japan in mourning the loss of thousands of lives and in the hope that some of those still missing may be alive.

3 Our hearts go out to the millions who were affected. We pledge our support as they struggle to rebuild their lives and their communities.

Our Admiration

4 Even as we commiserate with the suffering of the Japanese people, we are inspired by their calm and inner strength.

5 We watch with deep admiration their unity, their discipline and their fortitude in the face of unbelievable difficulties.

6 We are awestruck by the heroism of the workers of the Fukushima nuclear power station who thought nothing of their own health and safety to bring the reactors under control.

7 Out of all this, Japan will re-emerge stronger.

Our Gratitude

8 In Singapore, let us, at this time, remember the enormous contribution which Japan has made to our well-being and our economic development in the last half century.

9 Without that Japanese contribution in aid, investment, knowledge and training, Singapore could not have become a First World country.

10 Over the years, countless bonds of friendship between our two peoples have been forged across all sectors.

11 It is right that as we express our solidarity with the people of Japan, we also express our gratitude.

Our Common Future

12 For all the achievements human beings have made, we are small, very small in comparison.

13 We have to learn to live with Nature of which we are only a part, and which reminds us, when we need reminding, that all of us are members of the same human race sharing this planet.

14 This evening, I thank the Inter-Religious Organisation for bringing us together as fellow human beings so that we can be one with the Japanese people. With whom we unite in prayer this evening.

Thank you.

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