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earing a Japanese kimono, Anisa Febrianti, a student of junior high school SMP 1 Peukan in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, writes a message on paper with colorful flower motifs, which says: “I hope Japan always has good relations with Aceh, love Japan.”

The flower paper, called Sinsai No Hana or hope, flower and the future, was planted on Saturday in her school yard.

All students were allowed to write messages to the Japanese people, who experienced the powerful tsunami disaster last year. The messages will be handed over to the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta before being sent to the tsunami victims in Japan.

We hope through this hope flower that the Japanese people will soon rise up and face all hardships caused by last year’s disaster,” Anisa said.

Aside from writing messages on paper, Anisa and tens of her colleagues sang a Japanese song entitled “Omaiyari No Uta”, which talked about love among humans and between humans and the natural elements of water, earth and air.

“If people do not have any love, the earth will disappear. Therefore we have to store love from birth and also when we grow up,” Anisa said, quoting a verse of the song.

“We want our feeling of love to be felt by the Japanese disaster victims so that we give them strength,” she said.

The commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the Japanese tsunami was sponsored by the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC), a research institute set up soon after the gargantuan tsunami in Aceh in 2004.

The commemoration was held as a form of solidarity and care from the Acehnese to the Japanese, who during the devastating tsunami in Aceh in 2004 provided both material and immaterial assistance.

“Besides building solidarity, we have also used the commemoration as a moment to maintain preparedness against any possible disasters, especially among students in Aceh,” said Muklis A. Hamid, head of the TDMRC advocacy, education and training division.

The commemoration was attended by 500 students of all schools involved in the improvement of the preparedness program through intra- and extracurricular activities. The program was initiated by TDMRC Aceh in a number of schools located in areas prone to disasters, especially along the coast.

Indonesia and Japan are located on the so-called “ring-of-fire”, an area particularly prone to natural disasters.

This should have reminded such countries to undertake mutual cooperation and thus minimize the number of victims during disasters.