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“Precious Little Lives Lost in the Earthquake”

Last October，I visited the coast of Miyagi prefecture, which had been seriously damaged by the earthquake on 11.3.2011.

I wanted to volunteer to help people and at the same time to see the reality of the devastated area with my own eyes.
Once there, I helped deliver relief supplies and witnessed the pain and sadness of the disaster victims.
I learned that a lot of animals and plants fell victim to the earthquake, as well.

I met people who grieved over the death of their pets as they would I also met the volunteers who were taking care of pets that had lost their owners and become homeless.I heard that some animals, though they had survived the horrible tsunami, were not given aid and lost their lives, merely because they were “animals”.

It was a heartbreaking story for me. I, myself, have pets, and consider them a valuable part of my family.
I think the pets that lost their lives are worried their beloved owners are still in pain because of their death.
We decided to hold this event in order to try to connect the hearts of these pets with the hearts of their owners using our pictures.

In this event, authors of picture books, painters, and illustrators will ask disaster victims about the animals they want us to draw and we’ll try to give those treasured pets life again through our images.
The exhibition will be held spring 2012, and afterwards, we will present the pictures to the pets’ owners.

In the exhibition Part 1, I obtained agreements from 58 artists and we toured Aichi, Miyagi, Iwate, Tokyo, Taiwan and Wakayama for the exhibitions.
And in the exhibition Part 2, I have obtained agreements from about 89artists at this moment.
The exhibitions are scheduled from August 2012 to September 2013 and holding exhibitions in Chiba, Miyagi, Iwate, Yamagata, Aichi/Nishio-city, Nagano, Toyama, Hyogo, Aichi/Nagoya-city, Kagoshima, Osaka, and Wakayama and Tokyo have been decided.

The lives of the people and animals that perished in this disaster are equally precious to those who have lost them: this truth has been engraved into my heart by the earthquake.
I want like to show the equality of all lives through “Precious Little Lives Lost in the Earthquake”.

Usa, the Representative of “Precious Little Lives Lost in the Earthquake”