SHIOGAMI, Japan — It was a bitterly cold afternoon, and there were moments when the hospitality tent was almost ripped from the ground by fierce gusts of wind.

But the fishermen of the Urato Islands were not going to let the weather spoil what for them was a huge step in the recovery of their community — the handover of a fleet of boats donated by the U.S. charity, Operation Blessing International.

After a brief ceremony, they took the boats for a spin, in circles around the small windswept bay, children lining up to take a ride.

There were plenty of smiles, but none broader than that of 37-year-old Yoshimasa Koizumi, the architect of the recovery here.

"We'll soon be able to support ourselves again," he predicted.

Koizumi is not your archetypal fishermen. For starters he's a good deal younger, and he arrived on the Urato Islands only in 2011, shortly before the tsunami struck. His was a rare move, since most migration had been away from these areas, leaving a barely viable and elderly community, just 400 strong.

But he was attracted by the pristine environment of the islands and joined the oyster business, taking delivery of a boat just one day before the tsunami struck. That boat was swept away, together with most of the local fishing fleet.

The islands, which sit close to the city of Sendai, acted as a sort of shock absorber, which was good news for some of the mainland coastal districts but not for the islands, which were devastated. Incredibly, nobody on the islands died.

A simple request
When, soon after, Koizumi was asked what he most needed, he replied: "Wi-Fi and a laptop. I just need the Internet."

The tech-savvy oyster farmer then began a Web-based campaign, the Children of the Sea, using the Internet and Twitter to rebuild the local oyster industry. Under the scheme, supporters were offered 10,000 yen ($105) shares to help the rebuilding of the industry. He soon had 14,000 shareholders and also attracted the attention of Operation Blessing.

Shareholders are really donors. They don't make a profit, but they are kept abreast of the recovery -- and also receive oysters as a kind of dividend.

Koizumi says that other, mostly elderly, fishermen were a little puzzled at first, and not at all sure about all that Internet stuff. But they soon rallied round as the shares were snapped up.

The islands benefit from sitting astride nutritious areas for raising oysters regarded as among the best in Japan. In fact, the oysters harvested there are so good they serve as "seeders" for other areas, making them not only critical to the local economy but important to the greater Japanese oyster industry. And Koizumi is confident Urato Islands oysters will soon be profitable again, thanks in part to the help of the many donors.

Government help has been slower, and like 200,000 other tsunami survivors Koizumi is still living in a temporary home.

"I never expected I'd still be living like this after two years," he said.

Much of the coastline here is now a vast, wind-swept wasteland. Rebuilding has hardly started, bogged down in bureaucracy. According to a study late last year by the Board of Audit of Japan, half the $150 billion tsunami relief fund has yet to be allocated.

Millions of tons of debris have been cleared and sorted, but it will take years to dispose of it.

"Some places are picking up, but there's still a lot more that needs to be done" said Don Thomson, the director of Japan operations for Operation Blessing.

For his part, Koizumi said he believes that communities themselves need to take the lead, demonstrating the can-do attitude that has provided inspiration to his neighbors.

"Rather than just wait for government aid, we have to do it ourselves," he said.

Related:

Coast Guard sinks Japanese fishing vessel off Alaska coast

Japan grapples with post-tsunami suicides

Japan tracks tsunami debris as it spreads in Pacific

Oli Scarff / Getty Images, file

A woman looks through donated books which are available for free loan outside Kensal Rise library in London, England.

LONDON -- A British library opened more than a century ago by one of America’s greatest writers is being closed because of austerity budget cuts.

Kensal Rise public library, in north-west London, was unveiled in 1900 by Mark Twain while he was living in the city.

He donated five of his own works to its initial collection, which had been established in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

But 112 years later -- and days away from the Diamond Jubilee of Victoria's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II -- the library is facing its end as part of spending cuts by the local council.

Oli Scarff / Getty Images, file

Protest posters on Kensal Rise library in London, England.

It has been locked up and unused for more than a year. Workers for Brent Council attempted to clear out the remaining books on Wednesday but were met with resistance from local campaigners.

Since the closure was announced, a group of activists has called for it to be saved, enlisting modern British literary figures such as Alan Bennett to their cause.

For the activists, the library is a piece of history worth holding on to but the council says the number of users is too low to justify keeping it open.

It is one of six libraries closed in the area, representing a 50 percent cut in services. The council says it has used some of the savings to support a remaining library within a civic center that is more popular.

The building was donated to the community by Oxford University’s All Souls College through an Act of Parliament. Under that law, the facility can only be used by the council as a free library. The library’s closure means ownership will pass automatically back to the college.

A spokesman for All Souls told msnbc.com: "This is not something we engineered, this is not something we ever contemplated happening and we regret what is happening."

Campaigner Margaret Bailey expressed anger at the closure and pledged to continue the fight, praising "the support of the local community."

The protesters have set up a small free-loan library outside to distribute books to the community.

Bailey hopes to present a proposal to the college to establish a private volunteer-run library at the site.

The council has suspended its closure plans the removal of books in order to consult further with the campaigners. But for now the books will stay in their boxes and the library will remain closed.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Inside Syria rebel stronghold: 'The city is on mute'
• China abuzz over reported N.Korea boat hijackings
• Will $95-million cable car be ready for Olympics?
• What's behind China's crackdown on foreigners?
• NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin answers Syria questions
• Royal rumble: Spain's queen snubs UK queen
• Italian university to switch to English-only classes
• Germany's Pirate Party rides wave of popularity

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

courtesy Hawkins family

Former British Royal Marine Ed Hawkins was seriously injured in Afghanistan in 2010. He left hospital last year and is currently on a work placement.

LONDON -- Fisher House, the Maryland-based charity which provides overnight accommodation for families visiting hospitalized military members, is expanding onto foreign soil for the first time with a facility for British troops.

Construction has begun on a $6.8-million building with 18 en-suite rooms that will allow relatives to stay close to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where the U.K.'s most seriously wounded military personnel are treated.

As well as providing servicemen and women a place to relax away from hospital wards, it will have communal living space including a family room, play area, lounge and kitchen and a private garden.

Fisher House, which was founded during the first Gulf War in 1990, has more than 50 projects in the U.S., as well as others located on American bases in Germany. However, this is its first truly international venture.

'Unique American model'
Talk show host and former U.S. Marine Montel Williams and the charity’s chairman, Ken Fisher, attended a ground-breaking ceremony at the site.

Courtesy Fisher House

Montel Williams at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Fisher House project at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, on April 23.

"This is a great honor for Fisher House, as we share with our British brothers and sisters our unique American model for caring for military families," Fisher said.

"This will be a sanctuary for the people who need it most: those who have made deep personal sacrifices – whether on the battlefield or on the home front – to keep us safe.  We thank them even though we know it will never be enough."

Almost 10,000 British troops are in combat alongside 90,000 U.S. personnel in Afghanistan. Figures from Britain's Ministry of Defence, collated by The Guardian newspaper, show 832 have been seriously wounded since Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001.

Many families travel for hundreds of miles to be by their loved ones' bedside -- sometimes for weeks at a time, because of the need for months or even years of surgery and rehabilitation. Military accommodation exists for family members but only six bedrooms are available at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Sue Hawkins, whose son Ed was almost killed by an improvised explosive device while on a patrol in Afghanistan in May 2010, said the new facility would "be a great source of comfort, particularly at a time when families are surrounded by so much uncertainty."

The blast killed his corporal and seriously wounded Ed, who was serving with the Royal Marines. He was flown back to Birmingham for several months of treatment.

"When we were told about Ed, we just left for the hospital," Sue Hawkins told msnbc.com. "We had no idea how long we would be there or even if he would survive. I can remember everything about that day, because of the shock, but that last thing you have time to think about it is planning where to stay."

Five-hour round trip
Faced with a daily five-hour round trip from their home in Hampshire, Sue and her husband Michael spent many nights across the road from the hospital in a former nurses' accommodation block, before moving to the military facility – a converted house in a residential street.

"There were times when Ed became very distressed and we were able to reach him quickly when the hospital called," she said. "That sort of comfort and care is very important. We know first-hand how important it is to have a 'home from home' in difficult, emotional and challenging times. Fisher House truly is a massive step in the best direction possible.”

Ed Hawkins, who is now 26, left hospital last year and is currently on a work placement.

British soldier Nick Gibbons, who lost a leg in a bomb in Afghanistan in 2008, also attended the ground-breaking ceremony on April 23. He told ITV News: "It's what you need really, your family around you. Facilities like this are great because it not only allows the family to stay here, it gives you a better relationship with your family. It's a stressful time. The last thing you want is them travelling."

Fisher House has contributed $2 million to the project, with the rest of the building cost provided by U.K. veterans' charity Help for Heroes, whose high-profile supporters include Prince Harry. It will be operated by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Charity and funded by Help for Heroes when it opens next year.

President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have previously made a sizeable donation to Fisher House, which also operates a Hero Miles Program that uses donated frequent flyer miles to bring family members to the bedside of injured service members. 

Montel Williams told the Birmingham Mail that he was a regular visitor to Fisher House sites in the U.S., cooking meals for soldiers and their families. "I'll definitely be coming to Birmingham to do the same," he told the newspaper. "I'll bring my sister and my chef with me and we'll rustle up things like crab cakes and fish. It'll be real American-style cooking."

Msnbc.com's David Arnott contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold
• US charity's gift to UK troops: $2 million for 'sanctuary'
• $868K mystery: Nigeria stock exchange's yacht, Rolexes vanish
• UK jails 9 members of sex gang who 'shared' teen girls
• Heathrow chaos: Travelers spend longer in line than on jets
• Leak hits Shell Nigeria pipeline at center of environmental case
• Story of vengeful jilted dentist WAS too good to be true
• Poll: Most Egyptians think US aid billions have 'negative effect'
• London jogger: Dustin Hoffman 'saved my life'

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

LONDON - A British fund-raising marathon runner who collapsed and died less than one mile before the finish line of London's Marathon has inspired thousands of Internet donations totaling more than half a million dollars.

Claire Squires, from Leicestershire, England, was entering the home stretch of the 26 mile London Marathon on Sunday when she collapsed in Birdcage Walk, near St James's Park.

Despite efforts by first-responders, the 30-year-old died at the scene.

She had been running to raise money for the suicide support group, Samaritans, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. It said her brother, Grant, died from an overdose at age 25 and her mother, Priscilla, has been a volunteer at the charity for a number of years.

She had raised £500 ($807) from family and friends for the charity by the time Sunday’s race began. "If everyone I know could donate £5.00 ($8) that would be a great help and change lives," she wrote on her fund-raising Internet page.

However, since news of her death broke, cash has been flooding in at a rate of hundreds of pounds a minute. By Tuesday morning there were over 28,000 donations totaling £318,000 ($513,000).

Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Members of the public view floral tributes left on Birdcage Walk for Claire Squires who died on Sunday whilst competing in the London Marathon on April 24, 2012 in London, England.

Catherine Johnstone, chief executive of Samaritans, which counsels the depressed and suicidal, told Agence France-Presse: "This is an incredibly sad time for Claire's family and all those who knew her.

"We desperately wish that it was not under these circumstances but we have been overwhelmed by the response from people donating in Claire's memory.

"These donations will be put into a tribute fund and, following discussions with the family, will go towards projects they feel would have been important to Claire."

Squires' family said in a statement: "Words cannot explain what an incredible, inspirational, beautiful and driven person she was. She was loved by so many and is dearly missed by all of us."

Tests to establish why Squires collapsed as she neared the finish line are expected to take place in the coming days.

She was the 11th runner to die in the London Marathon since the event started in 1981.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• James Murdoch set for grilling at phone hacking inquiry
• UK cops close to arrest over British spy found dead in a bag?
• Judge slams Murdoch's Sky News for illegal email hacking
• Obama unveils sanctions on Syria, Iran for tech assault on activists
• Olympian outs stalker on Facebook, triggers debate
• Berlusconi: 'I'll cover you in gold ... just don't say anything'

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world