TOWARD RECOVERY, HEALING: Japanese relief workers visit Bay Area for workshops

On the week of Sept. 18, 12 employees and volunteers who are aiding various relief and reconstruction efforts in the earthquake and tsunami devastated regions of Japan came to the Bay Area to learn about community-based health care, mental health services and training, and enjoy a brief respite to recover from the stress of the […]

Japan mourns deaths of quake-tsunami victims on 6-month anniversary

SENDAI (Kyodo) — Residents in a wide area of northeastern Japan ravaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami held ceremonies on Sept. 11, the six-month anniversary, in memory of the victims of the massive calamities, offering silent prayers at 2:46 p.m., the time when the magnitude 9.0 temblor occurred. Others took part in a […]

‘Jazz Katsu’ mixes jazz and pork on a stick to benefit Japan

SAN JOSE — With thrilling riffs, familiar jazz, old style “scatting” and great eats, the inaugural “Jazz Katsu” collaborative, a free jazz fundraising concert and kushi katsu fry-a-thon, was held at the Wesley United Methodist Church on Aug. 27 in San Jose’s Japantown. Fundraising tickets were sold for two kushi katsu — delectable panko encrusted […]

Reading for recovery

In the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and ongoing nuclear crisis, social media played a key role in raising funds for victims in the earthquake and tsunami-hit region. Through social media and e-book publications, several fundraising efforts have come to fruition in the form of books. Here are two books that support relief […]

SORTING THROUGH THE AFTERMATH: Consul General of Japan reflects upon disaster

In September 2010, Hiroshi Inomata was appointed consul general of Japan in San Francisco. Just six months after his arrival, Japan was hit by a major national disaster, devastating areas of Northern Japan and causing energy and radiation concerns throughout the country. In the months since the earthquake and tsunami, Inomata and his staff have […]

Anpanman theme park opens in quake-hit Sendai

  SENDAI (Kyodo) — A theme park featuring Anpanman, one of the most popular Japanese anime series for young children, opened July 22 in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, after the March 11 earthquake delayed its opening for three months. The “Sendai Anpanman Children’s Museum and Mall,” a two-story facility on 7,000-square-meter premises, was initially set […]

Students act as bridge to Japan on memorial trip

When a major earthquake and tsunami devastated Northern Japan, claiming thousands of lives and wiping out entire towns, the world watched in horror. In Indiana, Alex Kessler, who had earlier that evening said goodbye to a visitor from Japan, was struck by the images of people crying. Kayla Lindsey, who attends a Japanese school in […]

HELPING NORTHERN JAPAN RECOVER: A community effort raises $3.5 million for disaster-hit regions

The great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami ravaged the eastern shoreline of Japan while many in the United States were asleep on March 11. Japan had been prepared for earthquakes and tsunami, a fact of life living on an island nation on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, but nothing of this caliber. The earthquake […]

Tweets to cheer disaster victims find way into books

TOKYO — When the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Japan on March 11 and knocked out telephone lines, Twitter was flooded with messages trying to reach people affected, including expressions of encouragement, and those words are now making their way into books as memorials of the country’s biggest postwar crisis. “Pray For Japan,” a printed version of […]

THE HEART OF KANJI: True Revival

真 (Makoto or Shin) means “true or truth,” and forms a person’s head and face facing down, to indicate a person’s death. When a person dies, he or she doesn’t change; he is unchangeable and becomes egoless. And 復 (Fuku) means “revival,” which consists of three parts. The left side of the character represents half […]