Japanese singer to hold gun-control concert in China .c Kyodo News Service NAGOYA, June 18 (Kyodo) - A Japanese singer-songwriter actively involved in gun-control movements is to hold a concert in Beijing next Sunday aimed at raising awareness of the need to curb gun violence, organizers said Sunday. Akemi Mano, from Fukuoka Prefecture, is to sing more than 10 songs before some 150 people in a studio in the Chinese capital, the organizers said. U.S. jazz pianist Donny Schwekendiek will accompany her in the planned concert, they said. One of the songs Mano plans to sing is ''Beyond Guns, Beyond Ourselves,'' whose words were written by Mieko Hattori. Hattori's 16-year-old son Yoshihiro was shot dead in 1992 while an exchange student at a U.S. high school. Mano, 46, is a member of the Yoshi Coalition, a group that began demanding the withdrawal of guns from U.S. homes following Hattori's wake in October 1992. ''When he was alive, my father often spoke of his wartime experiences in China. I feel like my father has given me a homework assignment to sing in China,'' Mano said. One of the coalition members, Hiromi Bando, a Beijing radio announcer, planned the concert. ''I want to introduce to Chinese people Mano's songs featuring the love of mothers and the importance of life,'' Bando said. The concert will be broadcast in Chinese television in early July, according to organizers. -------[Cybershooters contacts]-------- Editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website & subscription info: www.cybershooters.org
