Concert Themed on Japan-Turkey Friendship Held in N.Y.

New York, Nov. 29 (Jiji Press)--A concert themed on Japan-Turkey friendship was held at Carnegie Hall in New York on Thursday, captivating a huge audience. Seiji Mukaiyama, a 72-year-old amateur musician from the city of Kainan, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, conducted at the concert, titled "A Call for World Peace." The "Kiinokuni" symphonic suite's fifth movement, titled "Yujo," or Friendship, was performed at the concert. The piece is based on two past events in which Japanese and Turkish people helped one another. In one of them, in 1890, residents in Wakayama rescued crew members of a warship from the Ottoman Empire, which included the present-day Turkey, after it was shipwrecked in waters off the prefecture. The other was the 1985 rescue of Japanese nationals in Teheran by Turkish aircraft during the Iran-Iraq War. Inspired by the two incidents, Mukaiyama, who runs a company, created Yujo in 2009. The concert was his first in the United States. Previously, Mukaiyama held concerts in Turkey and other parts of the world. "I want to deliver (a message of) the importance of peace through friendship to as many people as possible," he said. Junichi Numata, 76, one of the Japanese people rescued by the Turkish aircraft, made an appearance at the New York concert. "I can't thank Turkey enough," he said. "I'd like to pass on the stories of true friendship (between Japan and Turkey) to people all over the world." END