Sakura Postcards: Off to Japan

Today was the day–after many posts, and many trips to the post office, the Sakura children are just a week away from getting their postcards. Today they went in the mail. Postponing seemed reasonable as long as the cards kept arriving.  No card-maker should feel left out. Finally the cards slowed down. I had three pounds of post cards. That’s a lot.

The first cards got a card and a hand-written thank you note. When I couldn’t keep up, I sent emails when I knew who sent them. I piled all the envelopes and cards into a box, and one day, I dropped the box, and the slip that kept the thanked cards from the unthanked cards floated across the room.

To all of you who remain unthanked, please accept my gratitude now. Your cards are amazing works of art, of kindness, of generosity, of giving.

To those of you who sent money, thank you so much. After three trips to the post office, and three different suggestions of how to send them, with three different prices, they fit, so they shipped. It cost just under $45 in postage, and I’m grateful for the help.

While I am sorry I did not send individual thank you cards, I’m hoping that seeing a display here (and many more here, and many more on my Flickr site, here) will convey some idea of how grateful I am.

Thank you for sharing your art for no more than a request. It will be a story the children long remember, and I hope someday an adult in Japan, who still has her postcard, will do what I did–and repeat the cycle.

–Quinn McDonald still has the postcard sent to her to make her feel welcome.

Letter from Japan

Previously, from Tokyo: A week ago, I posted a letter from Sachiko Takagi--a Japanese woman who spent time in America and now lives in Tokyo. Her letter was a first person account of the aftermath of the earthquake, the tsunami, and the nuclear reactor failure. Her letter was calm and heartbreaking, brave and reflective of how life has changed, never to be the same again.

Photo of ripping earth from Geekosystem, via Jefferson Santos via Ryan LeFevre.

Postcards of kindness: I asked for postcards for the children of Japan. I thought it might be a small kindness, to let these children know they are not forgotten, that people far away think of them and are sending them messages of hope.

Meanwhile, I have heard from Sachiko again. Here is her message:

March 28, Going Forward
“Our biggest concern is the condition of Fukushima nuclear plants.
No one seems to have ideas on how and when the plants will be cool down.
Which means that radiation will be spread out through air and water for months and, possibly, years.
People who are evacuated from homes wonder when they go back to home.

Bottles of waters were completely out of stock at supermarkets, drugstore and vending machines.
I found a note at the supermarket nearby, which states that bottled waters are available only to people who have the certificate that they have infants at home.

We have been accustomed to life with dim light and expected power shut down.

For more than two weeks, we have been watching painful scenes on TV.
At a destructed elementary school, only bags, textbooks and shoes were left and no children left.
A crying mother was desperately searching for the belongings of her lost child.
These painful scenes…

Yesterday, I had a walk and stop by an art gallery.
Watching pictures and paintings, I felt my heart revived.
We need the power of the art to live now.

We have a long way to go.
Knowing your heart is with us is a great support.

Thank you for all.”

You can still participate by sending a postcard. You don’t have to be an artist to doodle on a card and add a few encouraging words of love, of hope, of encouragement. If you don’t want to make a postcard, you can buy one. Please send your cards to:
Sakura Children c/o
P.O. Box 12183
Glendale, AZ 85318
“Sakura” means Cherry Blossom in Japanese.

If you would rather donate money, here is a list of donation sites.