SHERMAN OAKS : Kobe Schoolchildren Send Their Thanks
The children of Kobe have said thanks to the students of Sherman Oaks.
Tuesday, Osamu Yoshihara, the Japanese deputy consul general in Los Angeles, came to Sherman Oaks School to deliver letters of appreciation from the children of Suwayama Elementary School in Kobe, who were hit hard by the January earthquake.
After the temblor, the Sherman Oaks elementary students sent letters of sympathy to Kobe youngsters.
Third-grade teacher Regina Sahani, who organized the effort, said it was a very cathartic experience for children who had been deeply affected by their own disaster a year earlier.
“It gave them a chance to express their own feelings,” Sahani said, “and to see that they had overcome their own difficulties. “Many had lost their homes. Children feel very empathetic with other children.”
Sherman Oaks students sent 25 letters to the Kobe Board of Education, which then identified Suwayama Elementary as a school in the disaster zone.
The Japanese Consulate translated the letters from Kobe into English.
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