BY Hitomi TANAKA

Immediately after the terrorist tragedy occurred, Americans have began to support, of their own accord and on their individual level, rescue efforts by supplying food and clothes. Later, not only individuals but also high-class and well known restaurants such as Star Backs and Pizza Hut aided in those efforts.

To help educate people, some volunteers were sent to schools and homes, as well. At a public high school in New York, a counselor gave a class about the tragedy. Half of the students in the class were for revenge. The counselor asked, " Who does the American government want?" The students answered, " bin Laden and Afghanistan." However, when the counselor asked, " If the American government attacks Afghanistan and murders bin Laden, will terrorism completely disappear in the world? " Then the students turned silent.

If it were me, I would be thinking "an eye for an eye," so I think it is natural that Americans want revenge because America was attacked. However, this thought is too biased. I think the aim of this class held in New York was to have students think beyond their local sense of value to see a larger sense of value where they will be able to think more about foreign people's feelings and the feelings of the Afghan people.

At homes, pamphlets were handed out which were conversation manuals for parents and their kids in New York. The pamphlet's title is

" Talking to your kids about tragedy." This pamphlet was made because of the problem where people of Arab descent in the US were killed or attacked, so it teaches parents how to talk to their kids about terrorism and the problem using a Q & A style.

To write this article, I asked my American friend Tim what was happening in America now. He is twenty years old and goes to a university in Oregon. He went to an airport after the tragedy. He said, " My bags were checked and every place that I went I had to show my plane ticket and picture identification card." His sister was getting married in Las Vegas, but, " Some relatives that intended to go to the wedding are not going anymore because they are scared to fly," he said. Also, before the anthrax affair happened, a rumor was going around that some terrorists might poison the water system in America, so many people were afraid to go to very populated places, such as sports events and large cities. He is also living in fear.

However, even though America is in this difficult situation, President Bush went to a Red Cross center and called on American children to give one dollar to raise funds for Afghan kids on October 11th. As a result, $500,000 were collected as contributions by October 22nd. The president appealed to American kids and said, "Afghan kids need warm clothes, food and medicines. If you contribute, Afghan kids will not suffer through this cold winter." The American government has carried out revenge for the tragedy, but I hope that the President's purpose for collecting contributions for Afghan kids is not just a pose, but rather a message to the world that America detests terrorism but it doesn't detest Muslims or the Afghan people. When tension in Afghanistan subsides and there is peace, Afghan kids will never forget American kids' act to raised money and support them. And President Bush's act included his wish that there will be no terrorism in the next generation.

Eighty-five percent of Americans support President Bush and 88 percent of them approve of the attack on Afghanistan. I believed that Americans will go on fighting their fears by organizing grass-roots activities. However, when thinking about the act that is terrorism, we Japanese have to realize that this is not a tragedy only for America.