On Monday, March 21, 2011, approximately 12 MSJ students gathered along Palm Avenue to hold a rally to raise awareness about the recent tragedies in Japan. Japan suffered a magnitude 9.0 earthquake at 5:46 AM local time and a tsunami on Friday, March 11, 2011. Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant lost its ability to cool its reactors with its emergency core cooling system when the power was cut off after the earthquake and tsunami. Reactor units 1, 2, 3, and 4 exploded shortly on March 11, 13, 12, and 14, respectively. Juniors Keith Lewis, Sean Wang, and Patrick Yang began organizing the event. The rally was announced to students at the benefit concert held by the Japanese classes on Friday, March 18, 2011. When asked why he participated in the rally, Junior Matthew Ramos said, “We just wanted to support Japan because they’re going through a huge crisis.”
The event was designed to bring awareness to the devastation and catastrophe the Japanese people are currently facing. Junior Sean Wang said, “We just decided that people aren’t really aware of what’s happening—people are trapped [without] electricity!” The students felt that the media has not covered enough of the devastation, instead focusing too much attention on the nuclear crisis.
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