Student-Organized Japan Benefit Concert Raises Hope, Money

From great tragedy can come opportunities for learning and growth, as West Bloomfield students and Japanese community members proved Friday night.

The high school’s Japanese Club teamed with the Rotary Club’s Interact group to host a benefit concert featuring students and community members at . Members of the approximately 200-person crowd said they loved the 12 total music and dance performances, which included traditional Japanese songs and styles.

Japanese Club President Zara Pylvainen said the concert served as a reminder of the charitable nature of her high school community given the Japan earthquake and tsunami last month, as well as a learning experience to understand the charitable nature of native Japanese.

“As soon as people heard that we were putting on this concert, the Japanese community started responding to me immediately, saying they’d like to volunteer in different ways,” said the 17-year-old  junior. “They’re the ones who really taught me about Japanese culture, particularly the dances by Japanese groups.”

Hiroko Endo, a Novi resident who originally hails from Japan, performed a native Japanese dance to the tune of “Ohana Warawara,” a song with Japanese lyrics by Takana Kochihara, which she selected to be performed Friday by a guitarist and vocalist. Endo said she enjoyed the opportunity to teach students as well as audience members about Japanese language and culture with a focus on charity.

“ 'Ohana’ means ‘flowers’ in Japanese, and Japan is known for many things native to the environment, including our cherry blossoms. Now, we don’t have any flowers, because it’s a very difficult time. We all hope that we can have beautiful flowers again, so I really wanted to explain that to the audience,” Endo said.

AP Japanese language teacher Joe Nagashima said he felt the event served as a great teaching tool to explain the reaction to the March disaster, in which more than 13,000 Japanese people have died.

“We have a number of Japanese students at the high school and several of them have family close to the affected area,” said Nagashima, a West Bloomfield resident. “The amount of concern that they have for people in Japan has been a great motivating factor in helping them learn Japanese language and culture and the students who have taken the initiative to plan this event, to speak with community members, to speak with media, I think that they’re getting a lot of learning out of it.”

The event Friday night was free of charge, but it offered numerous opportunities for donations through a raffle using area businesses including ,  and among 29 others. Nagashima said that the event raised $2,290 to donate to the American Red Cross.

Japanese Club Vice President Emily Daelemans said what she has donated already will prove valuable. “We’ve made about $400 so far by taking donations of $1 and making origami cranes for every one,” the 17-year-old Keego Harbor resident Friday night. “The act of making cranes, itself, it’s an emotional experience. If you make 1,000 cranes, it’s a Japanese tradition, that if you get that far, you can make a wish for anything.”

Michiko Nowak, a Highland Township resident who originally hails from Japan, said she was surprised to see “such an organized effort” from high school students, but she was not surprised by their charitable nature.

“Americans like to get together for charity," Nowak said. "Back home, we don’t do that much. Here, I always see on the TV stations and in the community that people want to help Japan and so to see this being put on by high schoolers, I think it’s wonderful."