Local Japanese Language School Raises Funds for Victims in Japan

Akemi Watanabe flew home from Japan last Tuesday, two days before a 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated that country.

Watanabe, a teacher at Sakura Gakuen Japanese Language School and a Manteca resident, was there visiting family in Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi prefecture.

Tochigi was hard hit by the disaster and is still facing an ongoing crisis due to high radiation levels stemming from several explosions at the neary Fukishima nuclear power plant.

While she was finally able to reach her 78-year-old mother by phone five hours after the first earthquake hit, other family members did not survive.

Her aunt and uncle, who spend most of their time in their Utsunomiya home, were spending one week in their second home in the small rural village of Karasuyama, Tochigi, to visit with their grandson, a university student living in Sendai.

When the earthquake hit, it sent their entire house, perched on top of a mountain, tumbling down. Sometime later, their bodies were both found.

“I’m just really devastated,” she said. “Their grandson was away at the store to get something for them. That’s why he didn’t die.”

Now, Watanabe says her worries lie with her elderly mother, who faces shortages of food and water and whose home was badly damaged in the quake.

She wants to be there to assist her, but the roads are shut down and residents are under orders from the government to stay indoors.

“I can’t just rescue my mother. I wish I was there to help her,” Watanabe said.

But her mother, who lived through World War II, is part of a generation strong in the face of adversity. Her mother has told her, “We will survive. We will be OK,” she said.

Watanabe is just one of many associated people with the school who have their own stories to tell about relatives impacted by the earthquake and tsunami.

Sakura Gakuen school director Sachi Monastiero has been impacted. Her parents live in Japan and she said she still has relatives missing.

“There is no way for us to know if they are OK or not,” Monastiero said.

Much to her relief, she received a text message at 1 a.m. Friday notifying her that her parents were alright.

Monastiero has set up a donation box in the school’s lobby for monetary donations to benefit the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, based in San Francisco.

Her daughter Alissa, a fourth grader, wants to help as well. She said she already asked the principal at her Livermore school to set up a fund-raiser for victims.

“We just feel sad about what happened to them,” Alissa said.

Monastiero said she is committed to doing what she can to help. It’s the same thing she tearfully told Motoko Welsh as the two embraced Monday when Welsh brought her two children to class.

Welsh grew up in Sendai, a northern region of Japan that suffered significant damage. She came to the United States at the age of 21.

Now 39 and living in Dublin with her family, she says Japan is still where her roots lie.

"My heart is still there, that's my home," she said.

She said she still knows many people in Sendai and is concerned some may have perished, especially those living in the low-lying coastal areas of the city.

"I have no idea who I'm missing," Welsh said. "But I'm sure I've lost some of them."

Welsh and her family visit Japan regularly and were last there just last month to say their last goodbyes to her father, who was dying of cancer.

Now a widow, Welsh said she was worried about how her mother fared in the quake. She received a text message on Friday from relatives that was she OK, but she did not speak with her until Sunday.

She learned her mother had been riding on a bus when the earthquake hit and she had to walk quite a long way back to her home.

"When she got home, the house was a mess," Welsh said.

But like Watanabe, Welsh said her mother is approaching the situation with strength.

“At least I’m alive,” her mother told her.

But Welsh said her daughter, who is in the second grade, is taking the catastrophe in Japan particularly hard.

"It's so shocking for her. She's a mess right now," Welsh said. "She doesn't show it in her face, but as a mother I can tell."

Now, Welsh said she is committed to going back when she can to help her mother rebuild the house and for emotional support.

“For her, the community and for Japan,” she said. “We’re going to do something.”