CAMP ZMA, Japan (Nov. 20, 2012) -- The 2012 Japan Self-Defense Forces Marching Band Festival was held at the famed Nihon Budokan concert hall in Tokyo Nov. 16 and 17. The show was featured performances by more than one thousand top musicians from various marching bands and drill teams throughout every branch of the JSDF as well as U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps bands.
U.S. Army Japan Band has been invited as a special guest to perform at the festival every year for the past 32 years. This year, military musicians from all over U.S. Army Pacific united to perform in the largest military marching band festival in Japan.
Members from 9th Army band in Alaska, 8th Army band in Korea and the 25th Infantry Division band in Hawaii joined the U.S. Army Japan band to form a 67-member marching band. This U.S. Army Pacific band performed "Rolling in the deep" and "Malagueha" during the event.
"Each year, there is always a part where we get together and form a big band combined with not only our musicians but also musicians from Japan Self-Defense Forces," said Sgt. Cameron Blackhurst, from the 296th Army Band. "It is such an exciting time because none of us speak Japanese and none of them speak English, but we all playing same music … you can tell that it is the same feeling and it is same emotion and we are working to create the same atmosphere."
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