Nikon Repairs Ontake Eruption Victim’s Camera and Recovers Photos for His Grieving Family

Out of tragedy, a small ray of light and corporate kindness shines through today. The eruption of Japan’s Mount Ontake on September 27th took many hikers by surprise, claiming at least 56 lives. One of them was 66-year-old photography enthusiast Kazuo Wakabayashi.

His brand new Nikon camera was found and returned to his family in October — as were many others — but, sadly, almost all of the data was corrupted and the ash-covered camera unusable. Until, that is, Nikon did something wonderful and offered to repair it for the grieving family free of charge.

According to Livedoor News, the story caught Nikons ear when it was published in the Yomiuri Shimbun, and they were so moved they decided to reach out to the family and offer to help.

The family sent in the camera and, 10 days later, Wakabayashi’s second daughter not only received the repaired and fully-functional camera back… she was also given the gift of her father’s photos. Nikon managed to recover 200 photos from the camera and return them to the grieving family.

A touching gesture from a company that had no reason to care about this one family. Faith in humanity, restored.