“We truly, honestly know how they felt,” says Wilbert Rawlins Jr., band director at O. Perry Walker High School, relating to the devastation and suffering the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami wrought upon many in Japan. In this episode of OffBeat’s Look-Ka Py Py Podcast, Rawlins recounts a recent voyage he and a select few of the marching Chargers known as the “Chosen Ones” took to the ravished country.

Wilbert Rawlins Jr. (photo Aubrey Edwards)

For Rawlins, the trip, which was made possible by funding from the Tipitina’s Foundation and on behalf of Japanese musician and philanthropist Yoshio Toyama, was more than just an opportunity to showcase his best pupils to people on the other side of the world: It was a chance for him to repay an old friend, Toyama, who came to his aid just a few years earlier, and to teach his students a lesson in nobility.

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