Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan

Atmospheric Scientist Believes Religion and Compassion Across Borders are Keys to Stopping Global Warming

Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, known simply as “Ram,” discovered the greenhouse effect of halocarbons in 1975. Along with climatologist Roland Madden, he predicted in 1980 that global warming would be detectable by the year 2000. He is a distinguished professor at the University of California at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and oversees a University of California initiative for all 10 campuses to become carbon neutral by 2025. His most recent proposal — that the mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon, methane, ozone and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) will slow global warming significantly this century — has been adopted by the United Nations and 30 countries. Dr. Ramanathan believes that while science and technology are needed to solve global warming, the underlying solution is to change people’s attitudes toward nature, and to make this happen a religious leader is required. This belief led him to serve on Pope Francis’ Council for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke to Dr. Ramanathan about climate change and his part in the Dalai Lama’s Global Compassion Summit’s panel discussion entitled “The Global Impact of Climate Change.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Personal Student, Rajiv Mehrotra

The Trustee the Dalai Lama's Foundation for Universal Responsibility

A close personal student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Rajiv Mehrotra is the Trustee and Secretary of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, established by the 14th Dalai Lama with the Nobel Peace Prize funds he received in 1989. In addition, he is a writer, television producer and director, and a documentary filmmaker. He is also well known as the acclaimed host for over 20 years of In Conversation: one of India’s longest running talk shows on public television, that features distinguished interviewees including heads of state and Nobel Laureates. He has published nine books in more than 50 editions and a dozen languages. Mehrotra was educated at the University of Delhi, Oxford University and Columbia University, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in film direction. He has been managing trustee, executive producer and commissioning editor of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, which has produced more than 650 independent documentary films that have won more than 230 awards from 1,300 film festival screenings. He has also served on the Government of India’s Steering Committees of the Planning Commission to recommend policy and strategies for information broadcasting and dissemination of information technology. He addressed two plenary sessions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, held earlier in 2016. At the Forum he was nominated “Global Leader for Tomorrow.” Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Rajiv Mehrotra on the occasion of the 80th birthday celebrations of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, about his long association with His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a student, and the lessons that he has tried to learn from his spiritual guide. Among the many issues that he discussed, particularly significant is the one on the challenges of practicing compassion.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait

The "City of Kindness" Initiative that Brought His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Anaheim, California

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait’s “City of Kindness” initiative was instrumental in His Holiness the Dalai Lama choosing the city of Anaheim to celebrate his 80th birthday in July 2015, as well as in bringing together thought leaders for the Global Compassion Summit in Orange County, California. With a juris doctorate degree and an MBA, Tom Tait has served 10 years on the Anaheim City Council and is in his second four-year term, which began in 2010, as the mayor of Orange County’s most populous city, while also serving as the CEO of an engineering and environmental services firm. He spearheaded Anaheim’s program to help the homeless and introduced “Drug Free Anaheim,” a program that encourages chronic drug users to ask for help at Anaheim police stations in exchange for a free ride to a rehabilitation center. He has also worked toward improving relations between the Anaheim police and residents. Tait is known for standing up for what he believes in, even when this means holding his ground against the city’s corporate giants. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked to Mayor Tait about his trip to India to meet the Dalai Lama and Anaheim’s celebration for the spiritual leader’s 80th birthday.

US Sumo Open

The World's Largest Annual Sumo Tournament Outside Japan

Founded by Andrew Freund in 2001, the US Sumo Open is the largest annual sumo tournament in the world outside of Japan, with over 400 sumo wrestlers, including numerous past and present World Sumo Champions. Through his organization, USA Sumo, Freund has arranged for sumo wrestlers to appear in over 20 films, 250 television shows, 300 television commercials, 500 live events and numerous other public appearances. These include such films as Ocean’s Thirteen, Memoirs of a Geisha and 47 Ronin, plus commercials for Nike, Doritos, Ford and other brands. Freund spoke to Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie about his event and how the roots of the US Sumo Open trace back to Tokyo Journal, while four sumo stars shared their thoughts on the sport.

The Harlem Globetrotters’ “Buckets” Blakes

Ambassadors of Basketball and Goodwill Celebrating 90 Years

The Harlem Globetrotters are celebrating nine decades of combining basketball with family-friendly comedy and theatrics. Over the years, the team has performed in over 26,000 exhibition games in 122 countries, with around 450 live events every year. Wilt Chamberlain was a Globetrotter before joining the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he became a legend. In the 1970s, not only were Globetrotters like Meadowlark Lemon and Fred “Curly” Neal household names, but they also made guest appearances on TV shows and cartoons, as well as having their own Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon program. In 2013, three Globetrotters, including guard Anthony “Buckets” Blakes, made history by performing in an exhibition game in North Korea in front of the Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim Jong-un, and retired NBA all-star Dennis Rodman. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked with “Buckets” about the history of the team, their community outreach and traveling the world for basketball.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The 14th Dalai Lama Celebrates 80th Birthday at the World Compassion Summit in Anaheim, California

BORN to a peasant family in northeastern Tibet in 1935, Lhamo Thondup was only two years old when he was recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama and renamed Tenzin Gyatso (shortened from Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso). From childhood, he was trained as a monk, and as a teenager, he became the head on Tibetan government in their fight against the occupying forces of the People's Republic of China. He has been the leader of the Tibetan government in exile since he fled to India in 1959. He has traveled the world to speak about peace, the welfare of Tibetans, the environment, Buddhism and science, women's rights and economics. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet and became the first Nobel Laureate to be recognized for his concern for global environmental problems. From July 5-7, 2015, hundreds of well-wishers attended the three-day Global Compassion Summit to mark the spiritual leader's 80th birthday at the Anaheim Honda Center and the University of California, Irvine in Orange County, California. Special guests at the event included politicians, academics and celebrities who joined His Holiness for discussions related to global compassion, creativity and the arts, youth leadership and climate change. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with a number of these special guests about peace, compassion and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. tj

Photograph by Kevin Baldes

The Beach Boys

America's Most Iconic Band's Mike Love Still Having Fun, Fun, Fun After Five Decades

As one of the most iconic pop-rock bands of the '60s, the Beach Boys' vocal harmonies are among the most unmistakable, innovative and enduring in the history of rock and roll. They were the only group able to challenge the Beatles' success in terms of their overall impact on the Top 40. The Beach Boys had over 80 songs chart worldwide, including 36 U.S. Top 40 hits, which is the most by any American rock band. Four songs reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The GRAMMY Award-winning group is one of the world's best-selling bands of all time, with worldwide sales exceeding 100 million records. Rolling Stone magazine listed them as the 12th greatest artist of all time in 2004. The California quintet's original lineup ー consisting of the Wilson brothers, Brian, Dennis and Carl, as well as their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine ー was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. The group's lineup has changed over the years and two of the Wilson brothers have passed away, but in 2012, for the band's 50th anniversary, all of the surviving members briefly reunited for a new studio album and world tour. The Beach Boys are no strangers to Japan, having first performed in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka in 1966. A look at the back cover of their 1966 album, Pet Sounds, reveals photos of the group in Kyoto, outfitted in traditional samurai costumes. Half a century later, the current lineup of the Beach Boys not only returned to perform six concerts at the new venue, Billboard Live Tokyo, but they also performed for the first time ever in Seoul, South Korea. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked to original member, singer, songwriter and activist, Mike Love, about the band's legendary career, his love for transcendental meditation and his fondness for Japan.

CNN News Anchor Don Lemon

Breaking the News to the World

Don Lemon is the anchor of the weekday primetime show CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, as well as a correspondent for CNN's U.S. programming. After joining CNN in September 2006, Lemon has reported and anchored on-the-scene from many breaking news stories, including the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the deaths of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, the Sandy Hook Elementary School and Colorado eater shootings, the Boston Marathon bombing, the George Zimmerman trial, and the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. He has also anchored the network's breaking news coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Arab Spring and the death of Osama Bin Laden. He earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College and also attended Louisiana State University, beginning his career at WNYW in New York City as a news assistant while still in college. In 2011, he released his memoir, Transparent, in which he discusses how he suffered from abuse, homophobia, racism and discrimination as a young child. Ebony named him one of the most influential blacks in America in 2009 and he has won multiple awards, including an Edward R. Murrow Award and an Emmy Award. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked to Don Lemon about his career and outlook on journalism.

Nobel Prize Laureate Takaaki Kajita

Resolving the Neutrino Puzzle

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Japanese scientist Dr. Takaaki Kajita and Canadian scientist Arthur B. McDonald for the “discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass.” Modern physics uses the Standard Model, which defines three differerent types, or “flavors,” of a very small, elusive particle called the neutrino. In 1998, Dr. Takaaki Kajita detected neutrinos that were created in reactions between cosmic rays and the Earth’s atmosphere inside the Super-Kamiokande detector, an experimental facility in a Japanese mine. Measurements showed deviations, which were explained by the neutrinos switching between the differerent “flavors.” This is ultimately meant that neutrinos must have mass. As the Standard Model is based on the theory that neutrinos lack mass, this research meant that the model must be revised. Dr. Kajita was born in 1959. In 1981, he started his scientific career in the graduate program at the University of Tokyo, where he received his Ph.D. in physics in 1986. After graduating, he began working at the University of Tokyo’s International Center for Elementary Particle Physics. In 1988, he moved to the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and has served as its director since 2008. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked to Dr. Takaaki Kajita about his contributions to the eld of physics.

Former Heavyweight Champion George Foreman on Muhammad Ali

From Fighting to Peace and Compassion

On June 3, 2016, Muhammad Ali, three-time heavyweight champion and one of the most significant and renowned sports figures of the 20th century, passed away at the age of 74 after a long ght against Parkinson’s syndrome. The self-proclaimed greatest boxer of all time, famous for his ability to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” in the ring, was also known for his efforts to promote peace and compassion outside the ring. His 1967 stand against the Vietnam War transcended the realms of faith and politics and resulted in Ali being arrested, found guilty of draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing titles. However, he successfully appealed in the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971. After retiring, he devoted his life to charitable work by promoting world peace and condemning bigotry — two things that all faiths could relate to. He met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and successfully negotiated the release of American hostages, served as a United Nations Messenger of Peace in Afghanistan, walked with Malcolm X, exchanged jokes with the Dalai Lama and lit the torch opening the 1996 Olympics.