Running back Eric Texidor currently runs English language schools in Japan. Center Dwight Otani now owns a large produce distribution company on Oahu. But this isn’t a "Where Are They Now?" column about the 1972 Saint Louis School football team’s seniors.

Texidor lives in Koriyama, a city of more than 300,000 less than 15 miles from the nuclear reactor in Fukushima Prefecture.

Yes, that nuclear reactor. The one damaged in the wake of the Japan tsunami and earthquakes of one year ago, putting the entire area at risk of radioactive fallout.

Texidor feared for his life; he called friends and family in Hawaii telling them it might be the last time they would hear his voice. A year later, he and his family are relatively safe.

But mourning continues for thousands and rebuilding for millions affected in various ways by the disasters.

"Unless you’re here, you really can’t get a total picture of the devastation and the despair and how much still needs to be done," said Texidor, a three-sport Crusaders standout who went on to coach his alma mater’s baseball team.

He has lived in Japan for more than 20 years, but never lost touch with his classmates and teammates, including Otani.

"We were friends in school and people tend to go their own ways," Otani said. "But we got closer in later years. Our class did, in general, when Duke (Aiona, the team’s quarterback and another 1973 graduate) ran for governor (in 2010)."

Their bond became stronger in the past year, as they worked together to raise money to help Fukushima. Otani’s grandparents on his mother’s side are from there. "It is an area of farmers, hard-working people," he said.

The owner of D. Otani Produce organized several fundraising events in the past year, raising $28,000. The question became what specifically to do with it.

Texidor identified a need for radioactivity detectors, to test for food contamination at elementary schools. Robin Yoshimura — another former Saint Louis football player who helped Otani with the Hawaii fundraising — found a company, Tracerco, that sells the detectors.

Tracerco sold them at cost. The group bought 15 and will deliver them in person in three weeks. Otani and Yoshimura and their wives will join Texidor in a special presentation of the detectors at one of the schools.

"There’s going to be a lot of media there," Otani said. "At first, I told Eric I didn’t want media. But he said, ‘Dwight, we should publicize it, that this is through the generosity of people in Hawaii. Because we need to wake up the government in Japan. Show them they should do more for the recovery.’"

It’s another example of the aloha spirit extending across oceans in time of crisis. Many Hawaii people helping Japan the past year don’t have a close personal connection with anyone affected.

"It’s how we’re raised in Hawaii, to help out however we can in bad situations," Texidor said. "Wherever it might be."

For Dwight Otani, it promises to be as emotional as a previous trip to Japan — when he went to Hiroshima, where his father’s side of the family is from.

And for Eric Texidor, it’s proof that some guys are your teammates forever.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.