Restaurants and musicians turn out for Sendai hospital

Representatives from two dozen restaurants, a long list of local entertainers performing on three stages and Caoli Cano, a recording artist from Japan, joined with a host of other businesses and Hawaii community members to raise more than $150,000 for Japan disaster relief Saturday.

An estimated 2,300 people attended the event at the Pagoda restaurant, paying $50 in advance or $60 at the door for admission.

The "… With Aloha" fundraiser was coordinated by aio Group to benefit Tohoku University Hospital in Sendai, Japan — located near the epicenter of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11.

The hospital has been providing food, medicine and other assistance to people in need from the surrounding area since the day of the disaster. PacificBasin Communications, a unit of aio Group, has been sharing information about the hospital's role in disaster relief efforts through Yasue Schumaker, wife of PacificBasin President Scott Schumaker. At the time of the earthquake, Yasue Schumaker was in Sendai, on her way to visit Tohoku University Hospital, where her mother is a patient.

Scott Schumaker has maintained an online journal about the experience on the Hono­lulu magazine website, and donations for the hospital's benefit are still being accepted.

Aio is headed by Duane Kurisu, a minority investor in the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser.

Star-Advertiser President and Publisher Dennis Francis was on the "… With Aloha" advisory committee.

On the Net:

» is.gd/SendaiJournal