SMU’s Japanese Association to raise funds for tsunami victims

DALLAS (SMU) — The Japanese Association at SMU is selling custom T-shirts and holding a Charity Talk to help victims of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11.

Japan Relief T-Shirt

The T-shirts be will on sale in SMU’s Hughes-Trigg Student Center from 11 a.m. to noon March 28, 29 and 31, and April 1 and 8. They also will be on sale at Half Price Books at 5803 E. Northwest Highway from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. April 9 and 10.

The T-shirts, which cost $20 each, are being provided by Half Price Books. All funds raised through the effort will be given to the American Red Cross through the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man (ISEM) at SMU to help disaster victims in Japan recover. The Japanese Association's efforts are supported by Half Price Books, ISEM and SMU.

“We hated seeing what was happening in our country, and we wanted to do something to help as quickly as possible, so we formed JASMU,” said association co-leader Yuri Kimura, a Ph.D. candidate in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in SMU’s Dedman College.  “We hope others on the SMU campus and around Dallas will join us in our quest to raise funds for those in need in Japan.”

The association also is led by Noritoshi Hiyama, an MBA student in the Cox School of Business, and Isaac Saito, a graduate student in systems engineering in the Lyle School of Engineering.

The T-shirts also will be on sale to the SMU community from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. March 25 in the James M. Collins Executive Education Center as part of the Cox School of Business 7th Annual International Festival.

The Charity Talk will be at 6 p.m. April 12 in Dallas Hall's McCord Auditorium. It will feature Dedman College Dean William Tsutsui, who was in Japan when the earthquake struck, and Brian Stump, the Albritton Professor of Earth Sciences in Dedman College's Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and a recognized international expert on seismic wave propagation.

Admission to the talk is $10; students get in free with SMU ID. The T-shirts will be for sale at the talk.

For more information, visit https://sites.google.com/site/smujpn/

About the Japanese Association

The Japanese Association at Southern Methodist University (JASMU) is an organization for SMU undergraduate/graduate students who are interested in Japanese culture and communication. JASMU was founded soon after the earthquake struck northern Japan on March 11, 2011, to help with relief efforts. The association is committed to continuing its Japanese activities after its relief efforts are completed. Although one of its major goals is sharing information among students, JASMU welcomes any who are interested.

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