{"id":292810,"date":"2011-10-18T12:05:35","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T10:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/young-people-in-tokyo-fukushima-solidarity-concert\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T20:44:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T18:44:11","slug":"young-people-in-tokyo-fukushima-solidarity-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/young-people-in-tokyo-fukushima-solidarity-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"Young People in Tokyo: Fukushima solidarity concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is the invitation that was launched by the\u00a0 Youth for a United World<\/a> (YUW) in Japan<\/a> on Sunday, 9 October during a \u201cPower of the Smile\u201d concert in Tokyo, as they remembered the fatal tsunami that hit the northern coast of their country. \u201cThey idea for the concert,\u201d they tell us, \u201ccame to us when we realized how much the quake had shaken and frightened people. With the \u201cPower of the Smile\u201d we wanted to offer our friends a few moments of serenity, which they could then bring to others.\u201d Their message was launched with the musical refrain from the final song: \u201cWith the power of my smile, I will believe that I can love this land.\u201d <\/em> \u201cDuring the past months,\u201d they continued, \u201cmany YUW groups have gone out of their way, finding a million ways to help us with their solidarity. And their projects and efforts have encouraged us to do something concrete ourselves. As soon as we heard of the disaster on 11 march, we began a collection of funds in the metro area of Tokyo, an unusual thing in our culture, but it awakened a strong spirit of solidarity and altruism in many people on the street. Subsequently, some of us went to the district of Fukushima for a few days, offering the refugees some warm coffee and loivng and listening ear.\u201d Finally, with four musical groups alternating on stage, the concert took place. \u201cBefore going on stage we met in a circle and promised each other that even though we felt there were still a lot of holes in our original plans for the concert, what we most wanted to leave with the audience was the light of our unity.\u201d \u201cLittle by little the concert went on,\u201d recalls one of the presenters, \u201cI saw the faces in front of me change!\u201d This concert by the YUW of Tokyo was very unlike most traditional concerts. It was a coffee-concert<\/em>, with groups on stage continually interacting with the audience and the possibility for anyone to go on stage, to meet and know each other over a cup of coffee and piece of cake. When the concert was over, some of those who had attended wrote: \u201cI wanted to go and volunteer in Fukushima, but I couldn\u2019t. What a joy to have discovered that simply by offering my smile to everyone, I can do something concrete to make our society a bit happier!\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t expect so many smiles! They filled me with love!\u201d \u201cGiving a smile is a power that conqers all!\u201d \u201cYou too, me too. . . altogether let\u2019s believe in the possibility that we can love this land!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six months have passed since the earthquake that devastated the region of Fukushima. Some young people in Tokyo ask: \u201cCould we respond in some way to the wound it has inflicted?\u201d This led to fundraising, sharing and a unique concert about \u201cthe power of the smile.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}