Aid For Japan Memories

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In 2023, Aid For Japan announced that after their 12-year anniversary event and a final outing at Doki Doki Japanese Festival in Manchester, the charity would close.

To mark the decision, we have created a special Memorial Page for the charity which features testimonies from the orphans as well as volunteers and the trustees. There is also a brief history of the charity looking at some key moments and celebrating Akemi Tanaka’s foundation of Aid For Japan and its achievements.

In Japan, there is a belief that stages of life are divided into 12 cycles. 2023 marked 12 years since the Earthquake and Tsunami and 12 years since the foundation of the charity. In that time, Aid For Japan has achieved a great deal and seen the young people they have worked with flourish. Trustees and volunteers remain committed to working together on future projects promoting Japanese culture in the UK.

Read more here: https://www.aidforjapan.co.uk/aid-for-japan-memory-book/

Our final Doki Doki Manchester Japanese Festival – Summer 2023

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Our final outing as a charity coincided with the final Doki Doki Manchester Japanese Festival this year. The charity and the festival have grown up together, and so coming to a close together was a bittersweet feeling. Incredibly, over the past twelve years, Doki Doki Festival (organised by the stalwart Andrew Gaskell) has raised over £50,000 for our charity! Without their donations we would probably not have existed.

Aid For Japan is completely funded by donations and all our dedicated team work on a voluntary basis. Ever since the Tohoku Disaster of 2011 the volunteer teachers, homestay hosts, students and supporters have kept this charity going through their generosity. We’d like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts. We also know that if Akemi Tanaka were alive today, she would feel happy about what the charity has managed to provide –importantly – a supportive and caring environment for the orphans of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

This year Doki Doki Festival raised for our charity £5,404.74. The designers at Genki Gear created an original T-shirt for Aid For Japan which raised £710. Extra donations were received from Meian Maid Café and CLAM Fashion. Our charity team member Yuka Harada-Parr wrote names in Japanese kanji calligraphy – producing over a hundred people’s names – and together with book sales from Akemi’s book The Power of Chowa, raised £652.60.

In total, thanks to everyone’s efforts we raised £6,768 at Doki Doki Festival this year!

Aid For Japan had a stall over the weekend manned by trustee, Richard Pennington, where people could come and talk to us about Japanese culture and traditions. We gave away free Japanese language learning resources provided by HABaLook, held free origami craft sessions and helped run the saké tasting workshop hosted by Miki.

The Japanese independent film Eternal New Mornings 『有り、触れた、未来』was also screened as its UK premiere (watch trailer here). For the first and last time in the festival’s history, inspired by the closing scene in the film Eternal New Mornings, a giant koi karp was crafted and placed at the front entrance, so that well-wishers could write messages on coloured pieces of paper representing the fish’s scales and stick them up.

It was a wonderful to see over the weekend the blank koi karp fill up with loving messages and become more colourful. Koi karp streamers in Japan are flown across the country on Children’s Day because they symbolise hope and the energetic spirit of children, which is a fitting image for the closure of our charity which supports the orphans of the tsunami.

Our charity director, Rimika Solloway, gave a speech to the festivalgoers at Doki Doki about why the charity is closing now. For the benefit of those who couldn’t be there, here is the speech in full below:

12 years ago, an earthquake struck Japan. You might remember seeing footage on the news. Debris crashed to the ground. Waves knocked buildings into rubble. People ran for higher ground.

Akemi Tanaka (my mother) was watching the news that day. She sat in her living room in England and saw a tidal wave of water swallow cities on the East Coast of Japan. It was devastating.

At that moment she thought of all the children who might have lost their parents and families due to this natural disaster. She wanted to help them and protect them from what would be a very difficult life ahead.

This is why Akemi founded our charity: Aid For Japan.

Since 2011, we’ve existed to support people orphaned by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Over the years, that support has taken many forms, such as home-stays in the UK, summer schools in Japan, and cultural exchanges.

Looking back, I can say our charity grew up alongside the orphans who are now happy, confident adults. They are entering a new chapter in their lives – and so are we because this year, 2023, is the last year of our charity.

There are three reasons which have led us to this decision and sharing them will hopefully help you understand why this is a bittersweet occasion for us.

Reason number one brings us a lot of joy: the people we’ve been supporting don’t need us anymore. Some of the orphans we have known since primary school age have now grown up and are going to university or getting jobs.

When we close, our funds will be divided between this group of young people. Some of them will use it to buy a plane ticket to England for a holiday. Others will use the money to go on a trip in their home country with the people they care about.

This summer one of our longest-standing beneficiaries, Maria-chan, returned to England using her own money to visit us. The charity team met up with her and took her on sightseeing to places like Windsor Castle, also we went to see the musical Moulin Rouge in London’s West End.

まりあちゃん had a wonderful time and she told us that she would be coming back to the UK regularly, as we feel like family to her. Us charity members feel the same, so the relationship will continue long after the charity closes. She hopes to get a visa one day so she can live and work abroad.

Last year, with the help of your donations the charity sponsored Maria-chan to take part in a prestigious hair styling course at Vidal Sassoon Academy.

Since then, Maria-chan has landed her first job at a hair salon in Tokyo! She’ll be starting work as a hairdresser in the busy Ikebukuro area of Tokyo from next April. We are so proud of her for getting this job in the industry she wants to work in. And without the charity’s help she might not have been able to do this, so she really wanted to say thank you to everyone here.

Doki Doki Festival donates all its profits to our charity – something which I’m sure all of you will agree is amazingly generous and I think deserves a round of applause – especially to Andrew who organises Doki Doki.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to change the mood because reason number two brings us a great deal of sadness: Akemi Tanaka is no longer with us. She passed away from cancer in 2021, and as well as missing her as my mother, friend, and teacher, we miss her as a leader. We miss her vision.

Some of the orphans along with our charity lead in Japan, Sumika-san, have visited Akemi’s cemetery to do grave rites, which are so important in Japanese culture. Recently my family also remembered her at Obon, the Japanese Ancestor Festival.

Then, reason number three comes down to timing. The timing feels auspicious.

In Japan, there’s a belief that life goes in 12-year cycles. It matches the number of symbolic animals in the Zodiac. As we’re back in the Year of the Rabbit we have now completed a whole 12-year cycle since the Great East Japan Earthquake.

So, all that remains for me to say is thank you for your support. For both coming here to listen to my talk and attending Doki Doki Festival to celebrate Japanese culture, just like Akemi would have liked. All of the orphans who are now adults in Japan thank you too.

ありがとうございました。


dokidokifestival.com
genkigear.com
meianmaids.com
HABaLook

Eternal New Mornings – Japanese independent cinema

posted in: Events, News

We are very proud to present the Japanese independent film 『有り、触れた、未来』Ari Fureta Mirai or Eternal New Mornings (English title) directed by Toru Yamamoto this summer at Doki Doki Japanese Festival in Manchester.

The film is about the importance of community and finding the strength to live after a tragic natural disaster befalls a small coastal town.

HABaLook’s Yuka Harada-Parr translated the film trailer from Japanese to English. You can watch it on YouTube here (please turn ON subtitles/CC):


Eternal New Mornings is an original story inspired by the book 生かされて生きる―震災を語り継ぐ Ikasarete Ikiru: Life lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake, written by Yukio Saito, who was a headmaster of a high school hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011. Saito-Sensei continues to give lectures on disaster prevention around Japan.

The film’s story revolves around several characters: A pro boxer who doesn’t give up fighting; his wife, who has terminal cancer but wants to stay alive as long as she possibly can to attend her daughter’s wedding. A group of young actors who perform a “story of a soul”, while feeling anxious about their own future. And lastly, a girl who has lost her family members to a natural disaster and has thoughts of suicide.

Each of the characters suffer different hardships, but they are all stories about carrying on.

Here is a message from the film’s Writer and Director, Toru Yamamoto (山本 透), telling us the inspiration behind the film.

“Since the onset of COVID-19, Japan has seen a rise in suicides among young people, and children refusing to go to school has become a serious problem. This movie is meant for everyone out there who finds it hard to live in an increasingly stifling society, and for the children who will live in our future. It was made with donations from both Japan and the rest of the world, in the hopes that it could give these people “the strength to live”. All filming was done in Miyagi Prefecture, which was badly damaged in the 2011 Japan Earthquake. But this is not a film about the natural disaster or reconstruction.”

“It is about people who suffered deep wounds in their hearts, but came together to support each other for the sake of their children. By depicting their lives, I want to bring “the strength to live” to viewers through the screen. That’s why I chose to set it in an area affected by the Earthquake. The countless koinobori streamers that you see in the ending are a Japanese traditional symbol embodying the hope that our children will grow up to be healthy and strong.”

“Many of the people in Japan who commit suicide are actors and performers. But in an era filled with war, poverty, infectious disease, and other dark things, artistic creatives need to keep our spirits up, work together, and bring people into a brighter future. I believe in the power of culture and the power of film. And I hope that many people can experience the energy of this film in the theatre and come to believe in a brighter future.”


Doki Doki – The Manchester Japanese Festival takes place Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th September 2023.

Ticket Details: http://dokidokifestival.com/
Ari Fureta Mirai’s website: https://arifuretamirai.wixsite.com/home

12 Years On From The Disaster And Our Closing Charity Event

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Twelve years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the charity held its final anniversary event to mark the occasion on 11th March 2023 at the London Metropolitan Archives.

It was warming to see familiar faces there, like Andrew Gaskell the organiser of Doki Doki Japanese Festival Manchester who has fundraised for our charity over the years, and New Earth Theatre who produced the exhibition Tsunagu/Connect about the untold stories of Japanese women who emigrated to the UK, and many other supporters.

We held a saké tasting workshop run by Mikie Flannery, who taught us about the traditional methods of saké brewing. Everyone got to taste three grades of different of saké!

Our trustee Yuka Harada-Parr had brought with her homemade Japanese snacks, such as karagé (friend chicken) and onigiri (rice balls). Yuka also ran a workshop on how to make emergency supplies following a natural disaster with materials you can find lying around, such as slippers made from old newspapers, and rain-ponchos made from bin bags.

A slideshow on Maria-chan’s summer trip to England was presented by Richard Pennington, who was her host-family. Maria-chan is one of the charity’s long-standing beneficiaries, after she tragically lost her family to the tsunami when she was eleven years old.

We were pleased to be able to share aspects of Japanese culture and introduce projects which are ongoing since the 2011 natural disaster.

Radio Imagination was one such project. This immersive online radio play inspired by Seiko Ito’s novel (by the same title) about the wake of the earthquake and tsunami was launched on the day, 11th March (or 3/11 as people call it in Japan) to commemorate the Tohoku disaster. The artistic director Kelsey Yuhara spoke to us about the creative process and working with a team based in UK, Japan and Singapore during the pandemic. Tickets to experience this online play can be found here.

On the same day in Japan an independent film called 『有り、触れた、未来』(Arifureta Mirai) or Eternal New Mornings (English title) premiered.

This film is about facing life after a natural disaster hits a community set in Miyagi Prefecture, which was devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Our charity added English subtitles to their YouTube trailer and to introduce it at our event the director of the film, Toru Yamamoto, sent us this message:

Eternal New Mornings

Since the onset of COVID-19, Japan has seen a rise in suicides among young people, and children refusing to go to school has become a serious problem. This movie is meant for everyone out there who finds it hard to live in an increasingly stifling society, and for the children who will live in our future. It was made with donations from both Japan and the rest of the world, in the hopes that it could give these people “the strength to live”. All filming was done in Miyagi Prefecture, which was badly damaged in the 2011 Japan Earthquake. This is not a film about the Earthquake or the reconstruction, though.

The people there suffered deep wounds in their hearts, but came together to support each other for the sake of the children. By depicting their lives, I want to bring “the strength to live” to viewers through the screen. That’s why I chose to set it in an area affected by the Earthquake. The countless koinobori streamers that you send in the ending are a Japanese tradition symbolizing the hope that our children grow up to be healthy and strong.

Many of the people in Japan who commit suicide are actors and performers. But in an era filled with war, poverty, infectious disease, and other dark things, artistic creatives need to keep our spirits up, work together, and bring people a brighter future. I believe in the power of culture and the power of film. And I hope that many people can experience the energy of this film in the theater and come to believe in a brighter future.

Director/Scriptwriter Toru Yamamoto

『有り、触れた、未来』

世界を襲ったCOVID─19蔓延以降、日本では、若者の自殺率が上昇し、子供たちの不登校が深刻な社会問題になりました。本作品は、閉塞感が増す社会の中で、生きづらさを感じている人々、そして未来を生きる子供たちへ「生きる力」を届けるために、国内外からの寄付金を集め製作しました。撮影は全編、2011年東日本大震災の被災地、宮城県で行いました。震災や復興をテーマとした作品では、ありません。かつて、深い傷を負った人々が、子供たちのために、支え合い、力を合わせて懸命に生きてきた。そういう人々の生き様を描くことで、「生きる力」をスクリーンから届ける。そのために、かつての被災地を舞台にしました。エンディングを飾る、空を舞う無数の鯉のぼりは、「子供たちが健やかに育つことを願う」日本の伝統行事です。

日本人自殺者の中には、俳優や演奏者たちが多くいました。戦争や貧困、感染症、決して明るいとは言いづらい時代だからこそ、文化、芸術に携わる表現者たちは、下を向かず、互いに手を合わせ、明るい未来を届ける必要がある。私は、文化の力、映画の力を信じています。より多くの観客が、劇場で本作品のエネルギーを浴び、明るい未来を信じることが

出来るよう、心より願っています。
                           監督/脚本 山本 透

In this way and through work like this, we will continue to recover from and remember the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami for years to come.


Thanks to: Trustees, Jack Deeprose at LMA, New Earth Theatre, Doki Doki, Saito-sensei, Rio Harada-Parr, Kelsey Yuhara, Mikie Flannery.

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