Several campus groups are continuing their efforts to raise awareness for Japan disaster relief. One such endeavor, the Million Crane Project, began soon after the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck northeast Japan, when several students at Stanford and Princeton decided to make one million origami cranes to show emotional support for victims of the disaster.
“There’s a Japanese legend that says that if you fold one thousand cranes, your wish will come true,” said Shelly Xie ‘12, a representative of the Million Crane Project.
“In honor of that legend, we decided to set a goal of one million cranes, with the hope that many of our wishes for Japan will come true,” she said. “We want to reach the people in Japan, and we wish to convey our hope to them.”
The group kicked off its project during finals week by setting up tables in campus dining halls at lunch and dinner for students to contribute to the crane-folding effort. Though the group originally hoped to gather one million cranes by the one-month anniversary of the disaster, the deadline has now been extended to May 11, the two-month anniversary.
Several Japan- and service-affiliated groups at Stanford — including Stanford University Nikkei (SUN), the Japanese Student Organization, the Stanford-Japan Exchange Club (SJEC), Stanford Tzu-Chi and the graduate Stanford Japanese Students (SJA) — have since joined in on the effort. Nationwide, the project has more than 50 groups participating, from students at Harvard and Yale to several girl-scout troops.
Currently, the project is not connected to a specific fundraising effort, but the project hopes to use these cranes as a platform for fundraising among both the student body as well as bigger donors.
“The cranes are more the emotional support that we’re showing,” Xie said.
All cranes are currently being collected at Princeton, where the project organizers hope to use them to create a monument that can one day be sent to Japan. A similar memorial to the atom bomb victims exists in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which displays cranes sent from children all throughout the world.
SUN has also been selling a relief t-shirt for Japan; proceeds from the sale will be donated to the American Red Cross. Later this month, the organization will screen Howl’s Moving Castle and donate proceeds to Japanese relief efforts.
“We are trying to find places to donate directly to the nonprofits in Japan, so that the funds that we raise could be used in the longer term for people,” Xie said. “That’s because we’re hoping that they could be used not just for immediate relief but also later on when they need to rebuild.”
In addition to raising hope for the people of Japan, the relief effort has greatly inspired many of those who are involved.
“It makes me feel so hopeful to see people from so many backgrounds — Asians, Asian Americans, Caucasians, African Americans, people of Japanese descent, people of Chinese descent, working in harmony for this cause,” wrote Tzu Chi president Kevin Hsu, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering, in an email to the crane project participants. “That’s the real story here: that we can come together at Stanford to send love to Japan.”
“As human beings, we all go through difficulties, and we all need help at time,” Xie said. “This is the time to show Stanford spirit, to show our awareness and passion for global issues, to show those in need that we are here for them and that they are not alone.”