3/11 Tsunami Photo Project Slideshow (4.5 minutes) with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto

On May 11, two months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Kodansha will launch a slideshow movie version of the 3/11 Tsunami Photo Project charity app for Apple iPad and iPhone. The slideshow is 4.5 minutes long and will be hosted on YouTube.com (Now on vimeo, too!) to be accessed around the globe. The 3/11 Tsunami Photo Project app has already been downloaded from Apple’s App Store in forty-seven countries, and has held the top ranking for downloaded apps in Japan. The slideshow version is being launched to reach more viewers so that the catastrophe will not be forgotten.

Academy-winning Japanese musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has composed an exclusive soundtrack for the slideshow in support of the project’s aim of spreading its message across the world and raising aid money. Mr Sakamoto has donated the track, “Kizuna World,” (kizuna means “bonds” or “ties”) to the project.

A BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH RYUICHI SAKAMOTO

– What is your impression on the photographs in 3/11 Tsunami Photo Project?
It brings back raw memories. It left me speechless, thinking of the sheer scale of the earthquake and the damage it brought, the deep wounds it left behind.

– What are your thoughts behind the song, “Kizuna World”?
I meant it as a requiem for those who passed away, and as solace for those who have been hurt both physically and mentally. It would be preposterous to call it “an attempt to heal.”

– What is in your mind about the recovery of the regions affected by the earthquake?
It’s not just about restoring the land directly affected by the earthquake and the tsunami. It’s time for Japan as a country to reset its course. The vast areas left unusable by salt and radiation shouldn’t be left abandoned but utilized to create large-scale solar farms and wind power stations to generate energy and also employment in the affected areas. We could also plant a forest along the long coastline of the Pacific Ocean as a buffer for tsunami. What we need is a grand design, and I hope a government can carry it out.

What is the 3/11 Tsunami Photo Project?

– 120 photographs taken by 14 first-class photographers from 8 countries
– English-Japanese bilingual digital photography book in the form of an app available through Apple iTunes for the iPad and iPhone on worldwide release
– Includes recorded and written messages by the photographers to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami.
– Downloaded in forty-seven countries around the world.

Kodansha will donate all proceeds from the sale of the app to the Japan Red Cross.

Format: iPhone/iPad app
Price: $0.99 / E0.77
Category: current affairs, books

http://www.kodansha.co.jp/311
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id431226495
http://www.facebook.com/3.11TsunamiPhotoProject