On March 11th, 2011, Japan was hit by a massive 9.0 earthquake, the largest recorded in its history. The resulting monster tsunami devastated the northeast coastal region, destroying many towns in its path and completely wiping away homes and businesses. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was damaged in the catastrophe, which has led to fears of radiation leakage to the surrounding regions.
Almost immediately, SONEs around the world banded together to help the victims of this untimely disaster. Soshified started the Soshified Sowon Foundation (with “sowon” meaning wish in Korean) as its charitable arm and began collecting donations for the Japanese Red Cross through the Japan Relief Fund. A Soshified member who works for Google will have the company match the amount raised if possible. As of writing, the fund has raised $16,000 USD from members across 29 different countries.
One of the first members to rise up to the occasion was nightfly, who graciously donated an entire paycheck:
“While there is no way for money to make up for the loss of people’s lives, it can help those who survived; there are millions who are without food, water, shelter, who need help immediately or they will most certainly die,” he said in his donation post. “I will gladly give up…anything else I own to save the life of someone who did nothing to deserve the catastrophe that occurred in Japan.”
Another member who left encouraging words was SweetTooth. She said in her post: “I couldn’t donate much because my Mum is currently at the hospital now, but it’s the least I could do and I hope this amount of money helps the needy even for just a bit….I urge that SONEs would do the same and donate as much as you can…. SONEs, let’s all unite together and help the victims and show J-SONEs our love for them. Small efforts can make a BIG difference.”
Generous Soshified members have also donated rare autographed items by Girls’ Generation for auction, with proceeds going to the Japan Relief Fund. These items hold special meaning to their respective donors, but they have selflessly contributed these prized possessions to help those who are critically in need of aid. These auctions will end between March 20th-23rd.
Messages of encouragement have poured in from every corner of the fandom, including the members of Girls’ Generation who sent their condolences and messages of strength to those in Japan through an official statement on their mobile fansite and recently appeared on an SBS live special broadcast. SM Entertainment has donated 1 billion won ($880,000 USD) to the relief efforts in Japan.
TV Special Have Strength, Japan! – SNSD [03.16… by soshisubs
If you want to send your own message of hope and strength to those affected by the earthquake in Japan, Soshified has teamed up with United SONE Broadcasting (USB Radio), a radio broadcast by Korean SONEs. The first combined broadcast occurred on Tuesday, March 15th in three languages: Japanese, Korean, and English. You can listen to that show at USB Radio.
More combined sessions will be broadcast on next Tuesday, March 22nd, and on March 29th from 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM KST. Soshified DJ’s will host a thirty minute segment during the show, and Soshified member oniontaker will join USB radio’s KillerM for the rest of the show to make it an English-friendly broadcast.
If you have any messages you would like to send to Japan, please go to the USB Radio website during the broadcast, or leave your messages in the comments section below. Please include where you are from in your messages. You may leave audio messages and song requests as well. Instructions on how to forward your audio messages to Soshified are at the end of this article. Messages left by SONEs will be read in English and translated into Korean.
If you have not donated to the earthquake, tsunami, and radiation victims in Japan yet, you still have a chance to do so. Auctions will continue accepting bids until March 20th-23rd, and the Japan Relief Fund will take donations until March 31st. You can access these in Soshified Sowon Foundation. Soshified hopes that the people of Japan will not give up and continue fighting, and that our small contribution can help Japan end its suffering soon.
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Audio Message Recording Instructions:
1. Go to Vocaroo, an online audio-recording website, to record your message.
2. Record a 10-15 second message and include your name and location.
3. After finishing the recording, click “Post on Internet” and copy the link.
4. Post the link in the comments section below using the following form:
Name/Username:
Country:
Message of Support to Japan:
Vocaroo url (if you recorded your clip, make sure you state where you’re from and maybe name):
Your message will then be read on air during the next USB Radio broadcast, which you can listen to at the USB Radio website.
Source: Soshified Sowon Foundation, SoShi Subs, [email protected], news.naver.com
Written by: [email protected]
Contributors: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], tishos (L)@soshified.com
