Japanese band drums up support for victims of tragedy

On the blacktop of an empty parking lot, brass instruments and moonwalking merge.

It is the day before Christmas and nearly 200 Japanese high school and college students sporting white fedoras strut outside Angel Stadium as they practice one of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits.

“Bad,” coupled with slick dance moves, is likely to be a crowd-pleaser at Saturday’s Rose Parade, but the nonprofit Green Band Assn. has a higher cause. Established in 1998, its mission is to instill confidence in Japanese youth as well as raise money for victims of natural disasters, even those as far from home as Southern California.

After the 2008 Freeway Complex fire that destroyed hundreds of homes in the Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda area, the band held benefit concerts in both Japan and Orange County for victims. In January, the group handed checks to the widows of two firefighters killed in the Station fire. Now, their repertoire includes a song written for the newborn daughter of one of the widows.

Yuzuru Kumagai, 41, created the band with Americans in mind. Growing up in Japan, he played the piano, trumpet and trombone at a time when most boys his age were into baseball or soccer. Back then, Japanese school bands were primarily female. “Why do you play that music?” his classmates would scoff. “What, are you a girl?”

As an adult he hoped to encourage those who took the music route, and he was inspired by American school bands in which performers appeared to have as much fun as the crowd. In Japan, ensembles were about precision and winning competitions, with approval shown by way of restrained clapping. Kumagai wanted to form an elite group that could entertain to whoops and hollers. An environmentalist, he sought nonprofit status so the group would also benefit causes close to his heart.

Beginning with six students at one school, the band slowly expanded and received invitations to Disneyland in Paris and Anaheim. In 2008, a group of 150 from the Hyogo Prefecture made its Rose Parade debut and gained notice for its unique navigation of a 110-degree turn — clumping together tightly, then fanning out. At the 2010 parade, the crowd went crazy for the band’s rendition of “Thriller.” For 2011, students from the Tohoku and Hokkaido districts hope to draw the same response with another tribute to the King of Pop.

A new group is selected every year from a region in Japan. Green Band directors go to each school to teach the music and routine. Practice takes place throughout the week and on weekends. For an event like the Rose Parade, the students arrive about 10 days early and practice as a unit for the first time. The overseas concerts are where the students learn the most.

“Japanese kids are very shy,” said Kumagai, who also runs a restaurant review website. “People in America get very excited. Their performance changes because the audience cheers — the kids learn from the audience how to perform.”

Students rely on family members to help pay for their airfare and travel, since school fundraisers are uncommon in Japan. Trumpeter Chiho Okamoto, 20, worked long hours as a sushi chef while studying travel and tourism at Sapporo International University to help raise money for her trip.

“It was hard work, but it was worth it,” she said, grinning. “It’s special here because the audience so enjoys it. It encourages us.”

Many band members have never before set foot outside of Japan.

“Everything’s big here — trees, oranges, hamburgers … people,” Yogo Urata, 15, remarked after just a couple of days in California. “English is difficult for me but American people are so kind, so I manage to get along.”

The French horn player is one of 35 males in the group. Still dominated by females, bands are slowly changing, said Yogo, who loves the Beach Boys and Oasis. “Now people think if you play music, it’s cool.”

Trips to events like the Rose Parade always include a tree-planting ceremony and additional benefit concerts. The group played Sunday at Disneyland’s night parade and plans to perform at Kennedy High School in La Palma to raise funds for the family of a teenager killed earlier this year in a car accident.

The American experience would be incomplete without a few nights with a local family, usually one that has a student band member. The band then donates $75 to the American student for future band trips.

Mike Kelley and his wife have hosted students for the last five years and finds that bonds are forged despite language and cultural barriers. During the final concert, students find their host family in the audience and present them with homemade paper cranes. “It tears me up every time,” said Kelley, who lives in Anaheim.

After more than a decade, the band has become less about exposure to American culture and more about displaying Japan’s own flair for performance. Hirofumi Yokoyama, the longtime marching director, believes the group is now about changing perceptions: “I want to show them we can do it too.”

corina.knoll@latimes.com