MARQUETTE -- One of the areas in Japan hit hardest by the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami is the city of Sendai.

U.P. resident and World War II veteran Emerson Carey was stationed in the Counter Intelligence agency in Sendai in 1947.  The city was also in a state of disrepair at that time.

Carey said only three concrete buildings remained in the city as a result of wartime firebombing. 

Today, the official count of the dead in Japan's earthquake and tsunami is nearing 3,700.  Nearly 8,000 are missing and some 434,000 people were made homeless and are living in shelters.

"If I was younger, I'd like to be over there helping them," says Emerson Carey.  "I really would, but at 91, I can't make it, but I hope we can do everything, because they really need it."

Food, water and other necessities are currently being rationed in Sendai.