Interview with Roger Lowther for Redeemereader.com

Emily Whitten interviewed me for "Redeemedreader.com" a website by and for Christians to look at and discuss children's literature worldwide from a Christian standpoint. In this 22 minute interview, we talk about the earthquake in Japan, Japanese and American culture, and various works of literature such as "Little One-Inch" and "Tale of Genji." You can hear the interview by clicking on the link here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Emily wrote an intro to the interview which can also be found on Redeemedreader.com titled "Japan: A Literary Adventure."

Stories from Ishinomaki

This is a video my team in Ishinomaki just shared with me. This is the area we have been focusing on. We know these people. We know these stories. We know these places. There is still so much sadness in Ishinomaki, and yet, there is a "light in the darkness" that the man talked about. The government may not be offering it. The rest of Japan may not be offering it. But it comes through community...and it comes through the One who makes community.....

Then and Now from Paul Johannessen on Vimeo.

Performance Party

On November 20, we had our eighth performance party in our apartment. This time we had classical musicians, a writer (who read a five minute segment from one of her short stories), a manga artist (who showed us an amazing commercial he made for ANA Airlines), and a jazz ensemble of students from Senzoku Gakuen School of Music. Here is a short video clip of the jazz band. Everyone who came shared something.

(Why is there a pillow on Eastin's head?)

"Tsukuda Loves Tohoku" in the News

"Supplies with nowhere to go! The public effectively grasps the need." This article came out on November 6, 2011 in the "Asahi Shinbun" (Morning Sun Newspaper), the second largest newspaper in Japan. The article on the top shows what happened in many parts of the country where the government collected supplies from people but then did not know where to send them. The article printed just below highlights "Tsukuda Loves Tohoku," the community led disaster relief effort directed by my wife Abi and her friend Miho, as a model for how to get supplies where they need to go by building personal relationships with people in disaster areas. The picture was taken at a flea market near our building, selling goods in order to raise money for tsunami survivors. You can find a pdf of the article here. (Sorry, Japanese only!)

As a follow-up to this article, Tsukuda Loves Tohoku called the location in the upper picture and are now in the process of distributing the city's supplies in tsunami hit areas.

(Additional comment: The main reason for the distribution problem was that the government focused on establishing and providing for shelters where the need was quickly filled, but most people stayed in their own broken homes or moved into temporary homes and were outside this system. The only way to find these ongoing needs is through person-to-person contact and networking, the core of Tsukuda Loves Tohoku values.)

The Healing Power of Music

During the summer of 2011, I interviewed numerous people to get their take on the impact of music in disaster relief work. Less than two months after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, my focus switched from delivering food, water, and supplies to providing music and discovered the power music had to drastically change the mood of a shelter and to begin relationships for community development. Video made by Colin Miller.

The Juilliard Journal

"Current Students and Alums Reach Out To Japanese Earthquake Victims" (The Juilliard Journal, October 2011) Ten students came from The Juilliard School May 27 - June 6, just two months after the earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, to work with us in the disaster relief effort. Two of the students jointly wrote this article about their time here. You can read the whole article here.

Organ and Disaster Relief

"The organ and disaster relief - An American organist in Japan" was published in October 2011 by The Diapason, an international publication devoted to issues related to the pipe organ. The article tells of how Roger began using the pipe organ in the disaster relief since March 11, 2011 and paints a picture of how survivors have responded to the organ. Read the article here.