Kibou

When it comes to the big questions about life, the scary ideas about the worth of everything in the here in now, there is more meaning when they are actually discussed as opposed to being written in a witty and condescending manner. A number of drastic things have happened in my life over the past couple of months, and through it all I have had a few thoughts that I needed to share. While it was cathartic for me to actually voice my uncertainties and fears, it is my hope that they are helpful for someone else out there who is struggling. Let me know if any of you have ever felt the same way, and if my little two and a half minute rambling was helpful in any way.

Starting today, the Asian-American Culture Club and I will be selling silicon bracelets and collecting donations to help the Japanese reconstruction efforts. The wrist bands are red, with the phrase “The water recedes. The hope remains” in white, and a white heart with a red dot in the center, representing the Japanese flag.

I feel a little disheartened that it took so long to get this together, but helping in the reconstruction efforts is what is needed now, and we need to roll with the punches. However, we are a little nervous that people aren’t going to acknowledge the importance of our fundraiser because it has been so long since Japan has been in the news. As I said in my last post, it’s an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ kind of deal, but hopefully people will still be receptive. Disregarding my immediate friend group, who are helping more because of our relationship than because it is something they really care about, we will hopefully be able to present ourselves in such a way that others will be willing to help.

The Asia Foundation is still very involved in the reconstruction efforts, and for those who want to help and don’t know where to, or for those who want to donate on their own, the money is being collected through Give4Asia here.

As described farther down on the donation page, Give4Asia is also involved with the Association For Aid Relief Japan (AARF), who help with emergency assistance for the elderly and those with disabilities in the Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures, and with Second Harvest Japan, who are in the middle of a two-phase project for survivors in regions including Ishinomaki, Minami Soma, Iwaki, and Ofunato. Second Harvest Japan is using the grant from Give4Asia to buy and transport essential items, including food, to affected areas, as well as boxing and delivering donated items to families who are moved to new homes.

There is also a list of twenty-six American partners helping with the disaster relief, although they aren’t ones that have been very public in their assistance. Regardless, it is nice to see other people involved, and you can look them up and research them further if you would like to.

There will constantly be updates on different projects being done in Japan, so I personally suggest keeping yourself aware of the new things being started and seeing if there is anything you can do. It may not seem like a bunch of high school Senior’s selling red livestrong bracelets and collecting spare bits of lunch money will be able to achieve much of anything, but that isn’t true. Everything counts.

So, what are you going to do to help?

There have been a number of things happening in the news over the past couple of months. Most recently, the two main things that I’ve had on my news homepage over and over again were the storms that ravaged the South, the wedding in England, and the death of Osama bin Laden. For all three of these things I’ve heard a number of different opinions and responses, although a number of them were ones I did not agree with or couldn’t quite understand. However, this isn’t quite what I want to talk about.

As I said in my last post, I was rather incredulous about why people in America haven’t done much to help the people of Japan. I know that I have more of a personal link with Japan and probably care more than many, but for some reason it didn’t seem to make sense to me that people could easily forget about such a terrifying tragedy. However, I have been thinking about this more objectively lately since I’m starting to collect donations myself, and I can understand the other mindset better than I did before.

When people have no connection with something, when there is an event that doesn’t touch their lives or is so distant they can’t understand the gravity of its outcome, there is nothing dictating them as human beings to give their money to something they don’t actually believe in. It doesn’t make them bad people. Everyone has different priorities in life, and that is how it is supposed to be. People can only look at reality and what is going on around them through their own eyes, feel it with their own emotions and believe with their own opinions. As Terry Josephson said, “no matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head.”

However, what I am hoping to do is bring people the knowledge that they need to understand Japan’s aftermath. Of course watching the tsunami and earthquake on the news affected most who watched it as something absolutely distressing and horrible, but most people haven’t seen the aftermath beyond the problems within the nuclear power plant. They don’t see the massive cleanup projects being done on the wreckage; they don’t see the faces of the children who lost their parents or siblings or friends, all the people without homes trying to continue to be optimistic and help those around them before helping themselves. If the American people don’t see it, how can they be expected to know?

The answer is that they can’t, not unless they are given the information or actively seek it. After that, it is everyone’s own choice to use it or disregard it.

There are a ridiculous number of commercials calling for donations or charity that have their own slow, sad, Sarah McLachlan-esque music to make the people watching feel emotionally invested enough to give money. However, I now find that this is actually a good way to express the tone of whatever cause is being presented.

After two months, news about the situation in Japan has gone out of the public eye as more immediate matters have come to light. Even in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, a number of people lamented the destruction in Japan but didn’t do anything to help.

However, I am also a member of the Asia Foundation, and I received an e-mail from their American base on the same day of the earthquake giving me a number of options about how I could help immediately. Wanting to find a way to raise money to help not only to help provide fresh food and water, but also to fund the  efforts of the rescuers going into the immediate danger zones to find survivors, I came into my school and met with the principal about raising donations.

It may have taken two months of planning, but I, along with the student council and the Asian-American club, are finally able to do something to help those still in need and will start selling red livestrong bracelets with the Japanese flag in the shape of a heart on them during lunch waves, as well as collecting any spare change or dollars that people are willing to give.

Even though we aren’t witnessing exceedingly monstrous waves crashing into cities on the news, or gas tanks exploding in homes already under barrage of the earthquake under it, that doesn’t mean that the people who lived through it don’t still need help.

 However, with the help being given and the time being invested in reconstruction, there is, as titled by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, “a gleam in the distance” of hope that recovery is near.

Regardless of the passage of time, or whatever hardships befall mankind, seasons still move on and change. Spring has finally arrived, and with it comes the blooming of flowers.

Now, this is something that usually isn’t viewed as that spectacular here in America. It is something that happens with spring, sometimes met with relief after a particularly rough winter or chagrin with the bringing of allergies. However, there is a national celebration in Japan regarding the blooming of Sakura, or cherry blossoms.

In the very beginning of the Sakura Viewing Season, when the cherry trees finally bloom, everyone finds spots near the most beautiful blossoms to spend time with their families and to celebrate the beginning of a new and fruitful year. The start of the working and school year usually coincides with the beginning of the sakura season.

Sakura Viewing Season (also called hanami) recently started in Japan. Regardless of the fact that the entire nation is still devastated and in the means of righting itself, the celebration was met with the same amount of joy and excitement as it is every April.

This is another rather incredible example of how resilient the Japanese are. Cherry blossoms symbolize “an ephemeral life,” and though this manifestation of mortality may be seen as depressing, it is actually one that expresses how important it is to live well and happily with the time given. Even in the wake of this disaster, the Japanese people still live with this in mind. Optimism for life, even in a time of discord, apparently is helping them to move on and become even stronger.

Personally, I think this is something we should apply to ourselves. If anything, maybe we could learn to not be so jaded and find a way to finally live rather than survive.

Picture courtesy of: 荒川区役所の桜

Kibou, “希望” “kee-bo,” is kanji for “hope.” In the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami, as well as the nuclear disaster and other causes for sadness, I constantly find myself stunned by the optimism and resiliency of the Japanese people. This blog is my way of showing some of the incredible ways the Japanese are rebuilding and moving forward after this recent disaster.

It is easy for people to view others from places as different as the East in a way that they can’t relate to. Their languages are too different, their cultures and histories too vast and diverse for some to understand, and therefore it is hard for disasters on the scale of March 2011’s to have more meaning than something unfortunate that happened somewhere in the world.

This is something I want to work to change. I want to bridge the culture gap and show that there is much more about their nation and people than most realize.

So, what do you know about Japan or the Japanese? What did this recent tragedy mean to you?