WAIMEA — What do they wish you to do? The question was posed by the Rev. Noriaki Fujimori of the Waimea Higashi Hongwanji Sunday during the Japan Disaster Memorial Service and Concert, in memory of the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
WAIMEA — What do they wish you to do? The question was posed by the Rev. Noriaki Fujimori of the Waimea Higashi Hongwanji Sunday during the Japan Disaster Memorial Service and Concert, in memory of the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
The silence of meditation from the little church in Waimea joined with those in Japan who marked the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and resulting tsunami which killed nearly 19,000 people and left thousands without homes in Japan.
“We gather together here to think about suffering of our friends in Japan,” Fujimori said. “May we continue to support and encourage each other so that we can practice the way of Awakening.”
Japan is at a crossroads as it marks the two-year anniversary of its devastating “triple disaster,” facing a host of obstacles slowing the rebuilding of devastated communities, while struggling to clean up radiation contamination and to decide on a new energy policy, the Associated Press reports.
During meditation, we stop and think of those nearly 19,000 people who passed away, the hundreds of thousands — at least 300,000, according to AP — who had to relocate from the nuclear facility and those who continue to live near the nuclear power plants, Fujimori said.
In the Fukushima prefecture, approximately 160,000 evacuees are uncertain if they will ever be able to return to abandoned homes around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, AP reported on the tsunami anniversary.
Fujimori said the disaster is a call to care for the land, the mountains, rivers, oceans, animals, trees and plants.
“By taking notice of You, more deeply and with respect, We should have had the means to know of your burden and Pain,” Ainu poet Shizue Ukaji wrote following the disaster. “Many people have disappeared in the waves alongside your burden and pain, And returned back the Aina.”
Kamealoha Smith of Anahola said we need to care for the ‘aina, speaking in passages of fluent Japanese and English, and outlining his genealogy.
“Malama ‘aina is very important,” said Smith, who traveled from Anahola. “No matter where people come from, people come together. The history between Hawai‘i and Japan is long and deep, and as natives we must continue to find opportunities for dialog for peace and security. Japan and Hawai‘i play pivotal roles for peace in the Pacific and Asian regions and it is in the spirit of peace, we offer prayers for better things to come.”
Closing with an oli, or chant, about how to behave when near the ocean, Smith said the oli also speaks of relationships with nature.
The ‘aina theme continued as Kazz, one of two special musicians, opened the special mini concert with “Aina,” a guitar composition created after Kazz said he felt the power of earth through the earthquake.
“People who live in Hawai‘i are lucky because they feel nature on a daily basis,” Kazz said.
