Bridging Cultures Through Hip-Hop: Hawaii Kids Host Rainbow for Japan Kids

On 12/27,  HAAS Charter School students, teacher Tom Brennan, and our good friends from Center Stage dance studio volunteered their time to spend the day at Kilauea Military Camp with Japanese middle school children from the disaster areas in Japan. Our guests traveled to Hawaii via the “Rainbow for Japan Kids” initiative, a program created by Japan America Society of Hawaii to bring hope and joy to young victims of the Japan disaster.

The HAAS kids were awesome as usual, ditto for the Center Stage dance instructors and students who showed us how to “top rock” and “freeze”.

These wonderful young kids have stumbled onto a powerful truth that no one teaches in college cultural anthropology courses: that hip-hop has the power to bring cultures together, especially when it’s expressed through dance.

The videos and pictures below tell the story. The first clip features dance instructor Tunji Johnson and Center Stage student Rylie “Kid Frenzy” Cabalse showing our guests how to dance with passion.

Here’s another great clip of Tunji entertaining the crowd with a beautiful dance solo:

And of course, the pictures…

Did we mention there was bowling too?

A big mahalo to Japan America Society of Hawaii, Tom Brennan and his students at HAAS Charter School, and all the wonderful folks from Center Stage who volunteered to spend the day with our special guests.

Copyright © Tim Sullivan 2012

A Moving Letter from a Japanese Rainbow Mom

For those who didn’t read the last post, we recently facilitated an event that had our local charter school, Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science, hosting Rainbow for Japan Kids, a group of 20 middle-school students from the hardest hit areas of northern Japan. The teachers, staff and students at HAAS showed so much aloha, and sent these kids home with smiles on their faces.

In following up with Japan America Society of Hawaii, I learned that the Japanese mother of one of our “rainbow kids” wrote a letter of thanks to JASH’s partner in Japan, the Bikki organization.

I was so moved and inspired by the letter that I asked permission from JASH to translate into English and publish, keeping names anonymous. They granted permission, so here we are.

Letters like the one below is what drives our passion to connect Japan with Hawaii, especially the kids.

Before reading on, it might be a good idea to break out the tissue. Hope it inspires you as much as it did me:

My daughter participated in the recent study trip to Hawaii.

Tales about her Hawaii adventures started as soon as she got home. Together we scrolled through some 300 pictures she took; one by one she described each day of the trip.

My daughter is the one who sets the mood in our home. Since the disaster she’s been working hard volunteering to help others, from cleaning toilets to playing with small children. She’s been working non-stop everyday from morning to early evening.

Even on the day our Arahama home was destroyed, she insisted on going in place of me, her hesitant mom, to a town reduced to rubble. The one who ended up going back with my husband to do the final clean up, was my daughter.

I haven’t seen my daughter cry since the disaster. She’s always putting up a positive front. Even as a small child she always endured things without complaint, always tried hard–sometimes too hard. So when she was selected to go on this trip, it was my hope that an open, recuperative place like Hawaii would help her relax and be herself.

When she returned home, I saw that that’s exactly what happened: her heart was at peace. I could see the trouble in her heart and physical stress had melted away, and that she had grown as a person.

Since elementary school my daughter has dreamed of becoming a pre-school teacher working with young children. She’s been so inspired by the devoted nursery school professionals at the disaster site offering care to victims, that she’s been volunteering her time to help them as well.

Since coming back from Hawaii, my daughter said she still wants to become a certified nursery care professional, but would also like to pursue a calling where she can help even more people. She doesn’t know what kind of work is out there yet, but she says she wants to go out into the world and figure that out. I believe this trip to Hawaii, and the many people she met while she was there, had a lot to do with her new direction. I’m looking forward to seeing the kind of person my daughter will become.

It is my hope that my daughter will not let the disaster defeat her. I want her to believe in her future, and keep moving forward.

It’s also my hope that from now on, my daughter can stop putting up a false, brave front, and move on with her life as a genuinely happy, positive person.

My heartfelt appreciation to everyone for their time, their help and the valuable experiences they gave my daughter.

Thank you very much.

Copyright © Tim Sullivan, 2011

Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science Hosts Rainbow for Japan Kids

By now we all know the story: on 3/11 a 9.0 earthquake in Tohoku rocked Japan from the northeast to the Kanto plain. It was the largest recorded earthquake in Japan’s history, the fourth largest recorded ever. The quake was so massive in scale it actually moved portions of northeastern Japan 8 feet closer to North America. The ensuing tsunami left 15,451 dead, with 7,692 missing (presumed dead), and over 40,000 living in shelters. The estimated tally in material damage is expected to exceed $300 billion, an estimate that would make it the most costly natural disaster in history. (Data source)

Anyone who has read my ramblings on this blog knows I have close ties to Japan, starting with my Japanese wife, which by logical extension means we have family there, including my son who lives and works in Tokyo. In this sense, the disaster truly hit close to home. It’s personal.

When the disaster struck on 3/11, my wife and I felt helpless. We were heartsick and wanted to do whatever we could to contribute but our options seemed limited. We donated to the Japan Red Cross through various avenues; volunteered to open our home to refugees from the disaster area (still waiting for a taker); wrote about unfolding stories in Japan on my blog; and Kurumi even started a “Gambare Japan” fundraiser with her Japanese language students at Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science (HAAS).

We were glad to do what we could, but something was missing. We wanted to directly connect with folks who needed help, look into their eyes, embrace them, hopefully make them smile.

That’s why we were lucky to get a call from our good friends at Japan America Society of Hawaii (JASH), asking if we knew of a Big Island school with lots of aloha that would be willing to host 20 Japanese middle school students from the disaster area in Japan.

We said we knew just the school: of course Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science!

The Birth of Rainbow for Japan Kids

Let’s start with a very sincere plug for JASH: it is a wonderful non-profit organization doing lots of good deeds these days. Established in 1976 its mission is “promoting understanding and friendships between the peoples of Japan and the United States through the special and unique perspective of Hawaii.” To achieve these ends JASH provides programs that help expand knowledge, increase meaningful human contact, and facilitate discussion of important issues related to Japan-US relations.

We’ve been members of JASH since we moved to Hawaii five years ago and have seen firsthand the value this organization brings to Hawaii. My company continues to collaborate with JASH on projects when the need arises.

After the 3/11 disaster my friends at JASH really stepped up to the plate. As of this writing, they’ve raised $3,665,166 for Aloha for Japan and other donations, and another $106,757 for their new initiative created last May, called “Rainbow for Japan Kids”.

Here’s an excerpt from the Rainbow for Japan Kids mission statement:

“Hawaii is a place where people from different cultures and backgrounds meet and coexist surrounded by natural beauty. This combination of cultural diversity and natural beauty holds recuperative powers. By providing this opportunity here in Hawaii, we hope the affected children will experience the spirit of Aloha of these islands, and return to Japan with their eyes opened wide by the experience with new hope to create a better future for themselves and their community.“

What I love about the Rainbow program is its commitment to helping the most vulnerable victims of Japan’s disaster. So when JASH told us about the program, it not only tugged at our heartstrings, it presented the perfect opportunity to contribute our cross-cultural skills to the cause.

The program concept is to bring to Hawaii, groups of Japanese kids from the affected disaster areas to “engage in educational and cultural activities designed to provide physical and psychological relief from their tragic experiences”.

The first Rainbow group would arrive on July 27 and stay for ten days. They would spend the latter part of their trip on the Big Island, and requested to visit HAAS on August 3rd.

HAAS Reaches Out to Japan

So we approached Steve Hirakami (Principal of HAAS) and Dan Biegler (campus director) to ask if HAAS would be willing to host the first group of Rainbow for Japan Kids. They were nodding their heads before I got the request out of my mouth.

The first group would be 15 girls and 5 boys, all Japanese middle-school children from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. One of the children in this group was actually swept away in the tsunami and later rescued; another was trapped on a roof for 2 days without food, not knowing if her parents had survived. (Thankfully they did.) Most lost friends or relatives; all the kids from Iwate and Miyagi lost their homes and are currently living in evacuation centers or with relatives or friends.

Classes began at HAAS on August 1^st, so the teachers and students had only 2 days to prepare for the event. Our initial worry was lack of time to find enough student performers to entertain our guests for an hour. Happy to report that we had so many students volunteer, we ended up using some of the snack time period to squeeze everybody in!

The Festivities

The teachers came up with a great plan for the event. Here’s how it unfolded:

The students gathered at the school entrance, then cheered when the guests arrived in their tour bus. When each guest  stepped off the bus they got a lei, a gift pack, and a hug. (All leis were handmade by HAAS students and teachers just for this occasion, and gift packs also put together by the students.)

The performances took place in the HAAS Pavilion. We reserved the two rows of seats in front of the stage for our guests.

Principal Steve Hirakami kicked off the festivities by welcoming our guests. He talked about the depth and history of the Japan-Hawaii relationship, his own lineage to Japan, and the importance of nurturing students to become global people.

After Steve’s welcome we cut the students loose to begin the entertainment, starting with two Japanese-language students who sang three traditional Japanese songs. Our guests joined in and it turned into a Japanese sing-along!

Then the Tahitian dancers took the stage, followed by ukulele players, singers, guitar players, hula and hip-hop dancers. The Tahitian dancers came back to close out the show with a finale, at which time they invited our guests up on stage to join them.

During the performances, we kept our focus on the audience. Our guests were engaged and smiling.

Campus Tour

Afterwards, we encouraged our guests to wander the campus, even had them feed the tilapia in the HAAS aquaponics pond.  When the fish were full we headed over to Jeanine Baker’s class for an interactive game of “Fox and Rabbit”. Well, that turned out to be so much fun our guests decided to hang with us an extra 15 minutes even though their schedule was very tight.

Hat’s off to everyone at HAAS for a wonderful event that filled the campus with smiles. If you ask Principal Steve Hirakami he’ll tell you that the philosophy at HAAS is to mold students into being “good people”. The idea is that if HAAS students do good things for the community then the “smarts” will naturally follow. On August 3rd the students turned that philosophy into reality.

And the “goodness” of everyone present inspired us. To all the students, teachers and staff at HAAS who put together this event, you can feel good that for just a couple hours, you brightened the lives of some kids who really needed to smile, and in the process built yourself a beautiful rainbow bridge to Japan.

Rainbow for Japan Kids will be an ongoing program. We look forward to facilitating an ongoing relationship between HAAS students and Japan’s “Rainbow Kids”. Anyone looking for a worthy cause where 100% of your donation will go to helping the victims, please consider supporting the Rainbow for Japan Kids program.

Special thanks to Ed Hawkins and Kelsey Soma of JASH, Ryoichi Okubo (President of JAL Hawaii), Kaori Kano (Bikki), Hiro Ito and Kyoko Tomita (Kids Hurt Too), “Mimi” Izumi Nakano (our great interpreter!), and everyone else who made this wonderful program come to fruition.

Also a big mahalo to the donors and partner’s sponsoring the Rainbow kids. Check ‘em out and give them your business if the spirit moves you.

Last but not least, thanks to my son Grady and his friends Babatunji, Trey and Junior–all dance instructors from Center Stage in Hilo–who volunteered their time and energy to perform for and interact with our guests.

Copyright © Tim Sullivan 2011