The Japanese Student Association and the Holcombe Hall Senate would like to invite members of the campus community to their fundraising event to provide relief for residents of Japan affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami. The fundraiser will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in Holcombe Hall.

On March 11, a record 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck the northeastern part of Japan. It was the largest earthquake recorded in the history of Japan. It generated a powerful 32-foot tsunami that struck northern Japan and caused widespread destruction to coastal areas and communities. Damage to area nuclear power plants has caused a third emergency, the threat of nuclear radiation exposure.

According to the American Red Cross, as of March 25 the number of deaths had surpassed 10,000, and 17,443 people were still missing. The number of people living in shelters is estimated at 244,000, and it is obvious that people in Japan need a lot of support from other parts of the country and from around the world.

Holcombe International Living Learning Community has organized past fundraising activities based on students’ concerns including the Haiti Fundraising Campaign in January 2010 and the Pakistan Flood Relief Appeal in September 2010. With experience from those efforts and with the Japanese Student Association's officers’ willingness to organize an event, the two groups decided to collaborate together in this programming effort. Tatsuya Fukushima, associate professor of Japanese and linguistics at the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has been actively helping the Japanese Student Association officers to make their planning go smoothly.

Megumi Kawaraya, who is from Japan and studying international relations at U of A, commented: “It was quite shocking to learn about the earthquake. We are studying abroad, away from home, and we all have families there. Whether or not our families were directly affected by either the earthquake or the tsunami, all students from Japan at the U of A share the same concern for the people affected. It is so heartbreaking for us that many people were engulfed by the tsunami waves at once and that still many victims are forced to live with limited necessities such as food, shelter, and gasoline in cold northeastern Japan.

“We would like to do as much as possible here to help them even though we are not in Japan now. Thankfully, the campus and Northwest Arkansas community is always ready to lend their hands to people who need help, and thus it is so fortunate for us to have such a chance to share our feelings about this earthquake and tsunami disaster and call for help.”

Megumi will be doing a presentation during the fundraising program on Wednesday, March 30, along with two other Japanese students, Hiromi Higuchi and Yurika Saito, to share information regarding the situation in Japan.

Your generous donation will be sent to the Red Cross to support emergency relief and recovery efforts to help those people affected by the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.

If you have any questions please contact Akifumi Nagano, the president of the Japanese Student Association, at japanese@uark.edu or Nami Ochi, the Program Coordinator in Holcombe Hall, at 479-718-2592 or nochi@uark.edu.