Origami-inspired U.S. musician sings for peace
Aug. 3, Kyodo - An origami lesson from a Japanese nurse at a Minnesota hospital turned out to be the first of many encounters with Hiroshima for a 13-year-old hospitalized American girl.Thirty years on, Susan Osborn's latest encounter is her performance at a music festival in Hiroshima, which kicked off Sunday.
Osborn, a Minnesota native who sings ''Earth music'' to promote environmental awareness, acquired a mysterious connection with the world's first atomic-bombed city through a paper crane made by the nurse, which she says symbolized the wishes of a Hiroshima girl who perished at the age 12 due to aftereffects of the bombing.
Sadako Sasaki, who succumbed to leukemia 10 years after being exposed to radiation in the 1945 U.S. atomic attack on Hiroshima, kept making paper cranes while wishing she would recover from her illness, in accordance with Japanese custom.
As a child, Osborn was often sick and hospitalized, but her illness disappeared after folding cranes as taught by the nurse.
''I really didn't understand the significance of the cranes until I came to Hiroshima in 1994, heard the story of Sadako, and connected this folding of cranes with my feeling of being well,'' Osborn said in an interview with Kyodo News.
That experience made Hiroshima a special place for her.
Osborn visited the city several times and at the music festival, sponsored by the city, sang Japanese folk songs to appeal for peace.
Osborn said she thinks the role of music and arts vital in promoting peace.
Music and arts can ''touch people deeply, transcending languages, cultures and boundaries, and just get directly to the soul,'' she said.
Music is a ''direct connector'' of soul representing peace within every human being, she said.
Osborn was first attracted to Japanese music by listening to U.S.-based Japanese musician Akiko Yano, as well as the traditional ''taiko'' drum and ''shakuhachi'' flute.
An artist who has performed various genres of music including jazz,
country, swing, gospel and rock 'n' roll, she first tried her hand at Japanese traditional folk songs in 1991, two years after coming to Japan to teach singing.
For the past eight years, Osborn has been dedicated to singing such songs, in both English and Japanese.
She has so far made some 30 trips to Japan for concerts.
Osborn said she loves singing Japanese folk songs about basic human feelings such as family, friendship, love of the land, the beauty of nature and homesickness.
She won the Japan Record Academy's Enterprise Award in 1992 and performed at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Nagano Winter Paralympic Games, singing the popular Japanese song ''Ue o Muite Aruko'' (Sukiyaki Song).
Osborn, who left Hiroshima before Friday's 54th anniversary of the atomic bombing, appreciated Hiroshima's determination to dedicate itself to peace after a devastating experience.
''Hiroshima has taken its job very seriously, which is to remind the world what human beings are capable of doing -- either choosing to destroy or choosing to create,'' she said.
Just as a paper crane built a bridge between a 13-year-old American girl and Hiroshima, Osborn said, she tries to connect people from different countries with her performance for the sake of peace.
