Sonoma State Students Driven to Help Disaster Victims in Japan

Fusao Yoshimoto said he felt helpless when the 8.9-magnitude earthquake shook Japan March 11. He called the tsunami that followed shocking. He cried every day, he said. He is bombarded daily by news reports of nuclear fallout from the explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi plant — so he can’t push it out of his mind, he said.

Yoshimoto, 24, who’s from Tokyo, had to do something to help. He is one of about 50 students from Sonoma State University’s American Language Institute — a class of students from 10 countries — who campaigned Wednesday to raise money and awareness for the people in Japan impacted by the disaster.

The class set up tables to collect money and personal messages of hope and sadness from people on campus that would be sent to Japan.

“I feel so happy to help,” Yoshimoto said. “I felt like I couldn’t do anything from the United States, I just watched it on the news. But now I am so proud to help people, my family and friends are there.”

Students carrying books, talking on phones, immersed in conversation, stopped. Some put rolled up money in a cup; others simply placed a red sticker on a poster.

“We’re making a Japan flag,” said Yoshimi Nimura, 41, a student at the Institute. “Each person puts a sticker on the flag, it shows how many people have come to make a donation and support us.”

“We wanted to raise money,” said Gagan Jot, 25, a student studying at Sonoma State from India. “There’s not enough food, not enough blankets, not enough water.”

Helen Kallenbach, director of the American Language Institute, let her students take class time out to organize the rally.

“It came from them, it’s all theirs,” Kallenbach said. “Even the students who aren’t from Japan want to do everything they can to help.”

“We’re a little school in a big school — it’s like a small family,” she added.

“This is important, we need to help Japan,” said Marie Gomi, 29, a student at the Institute. “My family lives in Tokyo and I have friends and coworkers near the epicenter, I have to help them.”

Students created a Facebook page called Hands for Japan. Check it out here. The group's goal is to raise $10,000 in donations.

Update: Sonoma County public health officials released a statement this week that said there's no reason for area residents to worry about nuclear radiation in California.

"Given the thousands of miles between the two countries, California is not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity," the statement read. "Even in the event of a significant release from the Japanese nuclear plant, radiation would be diluted before reaching our state. Levels would likely be so low no protective action would be necessary."

Kyaw Tha, Paw U, a professor of atmostpheric science at University California Davis, said he doesn't think people here need to worry.

"It's a massive problem for people in Japan," Paw U said. "But the bottom line is, the release, even if very great there, would be so diluted by the time it reached here that it would be barely detectible, if at all."