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Japan, Aichi, Ama – Junior high schoolers here dedicated an illustrated book to victims and survivors of the Parkland shooting in Florida to offer consolation and support efforts for gun control in the United States.
The book was published in time for the first anniversary of the rampage inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day in 2018. The gunman killed 17 people, mostly students.
“Alyssa and Yoshi” is a story about two teenagers, modeled after real-life victims of gun violence, who meet in heaven and move forward together with a renewed sense of purpose.
Alyssa is a reference to 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, one of the fatal victims in the Parkland shooting.
Yoshi refers to Yoshihiro Hattori, a 16-year-old high school student from Nagoya, who was shot dead in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1992, when he was an exchange student there.
In the story, Alyssa is understandably lost in grief and unable to accept her death, so Yoshi tells her a secret to console her.
Source and full English article: The Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201902280004.html
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