When they went out of their apartment in Brooklyn, they saw clouds of smoke from Manhattan.
“Was it because of a big fire or something?“
“There was a huge thunder storm last night.”
Kanako Omae (17) and her mother Kyoko (44), they talked easily.
But when they went to shopping, there were many sirens of fire engines and police cars. And they watched a television and found out that the World Trade Center had disappeared.
“I didn’t understand what happened, so I was stupefied at that time.”
It happened only 2 days after they started their lives in NY.
Kanako came to New York in order to be a drummer. When she was junior high school student, she was fascinated by Rock’n Roll music, then she made a band with friends in high school, started to play drums. She played violent drums, she felt uplift by the beat which made her want to scream. Then she wanted to practice drums seriously in the home of Entertainment.
When she told her father “I will quit high school and go to New York”, Hirokazu, her father (47) opposed furiously. The family talked about her request many times, and he permitted her with one condition that was “live with mother”. Kyoko, her mother who managed cramming school in Kanagawa prefecture, thought “she should go to New York to take control of her dream instead of keep going to high school. So I decided to support her.”
Terrorism showed Kanako “the hardness of real life,” before that she only wanted to make her dream of being a musician comes true.
All music disappeared from the city. There were some scary rumors like “there is the bomb in a subway,” ”There will be another terrorism in the near future.”
She went to near the scene of terrorism to pray for victims with crane origami, she felt so scary and she could not say anything.
She could not find any band which accepts her. She looked for the band from papers, but all of the bands refused because she is Japanese and only 16 years old. Finally she found one band, but the bass player hated her obviously. She realized how serious the racial discrimination is.
On the other hand, Kanako prayed and cheer for America when she Watched many building with the Stars and Stripes.
She read many books about philosophy and world religion in order to know her feeling of fear and pray.
She never thought of going back to Japan. She practiced harder and harder, and she started to have confidence that she can live in New York as a musician.
“I’m not interested in playing angry music anymore. I want to be a “tender drummer.”
Kanako had joined a new band, and told me about her purpose of “tender drummer” over the phone.
Before terrorism, if she could enjoy herself she was satisfied enough. Now she wants people to listen to her “happy Rock” as cheerfully. She wants to give happy messages to people.
On September 12th,2002, she will have a benefit show. “I want to play for the people. I want them to be happy and to have a hope for tomorrow."
New York accepted the 16 years old Kanako. Now she thinks that if she can make audience happy through her music, she will be happy.