Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Vietnam
Chapter 2
New Home
in Kofu
Chapter 3
Hong Kong
China,
&
Korea
Chapter 4
Yamanashi
Chapter 5
Society
Chapter 6
Hospital
Chapter 7
Nikko
Chapter 8
Holiday
Greetings
Chapter 9
Culture
Chapter 10
Holiday
Trip:
Kansai
&
Kyushu
Chapter 11
Mores
Chapter 12
Hankos
& Brush-
writing
Chapter13
Friends
Chapter 14
Festivities
Chapter 15
Okinawa
&
Nagasaki
Chapter 16
Hong Kong
&
Australia
Chapter 17
Special
People
&
Events
Chapter 18
Coming
to
Japan
Chapter 19
Letter to
Editor
Chapter 20
Teaching
English
Chapter 21 Hamamatsu
Chapter 22
Women's
Relation-
ships
Chapter 23
Reflections
on
Education
Chapter 24
Nephews'
Visit
Chapter 25
Thailand,
Korea
&
Home
Chapter 26
Taking
Stock
Chapter 15
Okinawa and Nagasaki
March, 1996
Dear Friends,
I returned from the Ko-1 (10th grade) class trip to Okinawa and Nagasaki two days after Carolyn and Marie got back to Japan. Until recently most schools took their students on the traditional trip to the ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara. Sadly, now the most popular destination for class trips is Tokyo Disneyland. Eiwa's trip is unique because it is designed to focus on some of the history of Christianity in Japan and on issues of peace and war by visiting several World War II sites.
The trip was as carefully planned as any military operation. Weeks of instruction and "background" at Eiwa, reams of printed material on places to be seen and practicing lining up. For lining up there were two formations -- rows of two and rows of five. Maybe it sounds silly, but it worked marvels at different airports, with different floor layouts. Once in line, the leader of each group could quickly have the students count off and attendance was done in a few seconds.
The daily schedule varied little from day to day. Wakeup call at 6 A.M., worship at 6:30 and breakfast after the service. Luggage (color coded with a ribbon so it was packed on the right bus) was brought down at 7:30, loaded and we were off by 8:00. Since it was a school activity, students were required to wear their uniforms until we arrived at the hotel. Of course, all rules regarding jewelry and makeup were in force! (No makeup is allowed and, as far as jewelry is concerned, students may only wear their school pin, a watch, a school ring, and a solid color ribbon in their hair.)
Some days we would spend 5-6 hours on the bus, but we usually made it to the next hotel by 5 PM. Dinner was at 6 and, if there wasn't an evening program, the girls were "free" until the evening service at 9. Not free in the sense of American students, because I believe they could not leave the hotel.
Teachers had at least two meetings every day to check on the day's happenings and to get details for the next day from the head travel guide (we had three guides).There was always a meeting after arriving at each hotel. One meeting always followed the evening service and could run to 10 or11 o'clock. The one bright spot of that meeting was that there were always good snacks. After that meeting there were bed checks and then all the adults were free to go to bed. In spite of the regimentation, the girls kept a great spirit and I couldn't imagine a trip involving 180 students, eight teachers and three guides going any more smoothly. (If you are doing your math, you can tell that the teachers didn't get much sleep and were pretty tired throughout the trip.)
Our time in Okinawa came in the aftermath of great tensions among the Japanese government, the government of Okinawa and the United States, as we mentioned in earlier letters. It was precipitated over the rape of a 12-year-old student by three U.S. servicemen in September. In addition to the outrage the crime generated among Okinawans, opponents are using the issue to try to change the terms of the treaty allowing U.S. bases on the island. Anti-U.S. feelings are running high and armed forces personnel have been told to limit their presence in town and to avoid wearing uniforms off of the base.
Adding to the debate is the feeling of the people on Okinawa that they are being treated as second-class citizens by the rest of Japan. The people resent the way they were treated by the Japanese army during the war and feel that their concerns over the U.S. presence is given short shrift by the national government. One example of this resentment came when the national sports festival was held in Okinawa in the 1980's. People protested the visit by the crown prince and some student radicals tore down the Japanese flag in protest. The government in Tokyo generally ignored the protestations of the governor of Okinawa and made it clear from the beginning that the treaty was going to be renewed.
While I was in Okinawa the sentences were handed down for the U.S. military personnel who had been convicted of rape (6 1/2 and 7 years). Obviously, I was anxious to see what the mood would be in Okinawa and was hoping to talk to some U.S. service personnel. However, none were to be seen in the places where the students visited. Strange as it may seem, though, souvenir stands were selling U.S. Marine T-shirts and jackets, as well as child-size camouflage uniforms. Driving through the capital city, Naha, we saw only one anti-U.S. banner on a building --"U.S. soldiers go home". Other than that, there were no overt indications of any tensions. As we had driven into town, the normally talkative guide had no comments when we drove by a large US base.
What is obvious is that the people of Okinawa harbor a deep resentment over their treatment by the Tokyo government, which signed the treaties putting 40% of the U.S. bases on their island. Also, they have not forgotten that the wartime government chose to fight the "last stand" battle on Okinawa in order to save the main islands. The imperial army had no hesitation in sacrificing the lives of Okinawans to slow the advance of the U.S. forces towards Tokyo. Currently the people feel isolated from the distant and unresponsive national government.
Students visited caves where people hid during the battle for Okinawa and went to the area of the coastline where many people jumped from the cliffs to their deaths in the sea, when it became clear that the U.S. was going to win. The Japanese army had indoctrinated the people to believe that the U.S. forces would rape the women and kill their children and that suicide was more honorable than capture by the enemy.
The students went into one cave where about 100 people sought refuge during the battle. While in the cave we heard a lecture by a man (now a cab driver) who was in the cave during the war. The man talked for a long time about what it was like in the cave. He explained how soldiers of the Japanese army controlled the caves and forbade anyone to leave. When U.S. forces found the caves and ordered everyone out (in Japanese) no one could surrender. When no one emerged, the Americans would usually throw in hand grenades, use flame throwers, or pump in fuel and ignite it.
I have an aversion to dark and crowded places, so the visit was doubly interesting for me -- especially when all the flashlights were turned off. During the whole experience I would have been absolutely terrified, had I not been comforting a whimpering Eiwa student who was hanging on my arm. Focusing on her distracted me from my own claustrophobic distress.
The most interesting site for me was at a small museum/memorial, Himeyuri No To, dedicated to high school girls on Okinawa who were forced to serve as nurse's aides during the battle. When the outcome of the fighting became obvious, the imperial army disbanded the unit and forced the girls and their teachers out of the caves. Because of their indoctrination, 150 of the girls committed suicide. Altogether, 95% (about 200) of the girls and all of their 18 teachers died after being turned out by the army.
On a more positive note, Okinawa is a beautiful place. Our hotel was the Kariyushi Beach Resort, right on the beach, overlooking the clear green water of the Philippine Sea. Since this was an educational trip, however, students were not allowed to bring their bathing suits. The beaches were off-limits. Travel was restricted to sites of historical and cultural importance. (ugh!)
After Okinawa we went to Nagasaki via Dutch Village (Huis Ten Bosch). This huge compound is a Holland in miniature. It was built in 1983 to commemorate the relationship between Japan and the Netherlands that began in 1609. After the Catholic Church and the Portuguese were expelled from Japan, the energetic and profit-driven Protestants of the Netherlands were given exclusive trading rights in Japan. They were allowed to live on a man-made island in Nagasaki harbor and could have contact only with specially appointed officials and the prostitutes provided by the thoughtful Japanese authorities. Teaching Japanese to any of the foreigners was a capital offense. Ships could come twice a year to trade and to change personnel. The proud and powerful Dutch tolerated this humiliating arrangement because it was so profitable.
At Dutch Village there are hotels, palaces, canals, churches, windmills, 300,000 tulips and a multitude of ways to spend your money. We stayed the entire day and it was overwhelming. I suspect the students liked it because it was fun and its immense size allowed them to get away from their chaperones. There were enough free exhibits, museums, demonstrations and entertainment to keep my Scottish heart satisfied.
The "village" is about an hour outside of Nagasaki, so in the late afternoon we drove to our hotel in the city. During the evening program, the students heard one woman's experiences as a survivor of the atomic bombing.
The student tour of Nagasaki is another example of the preparation and planning that went into the trip. Students were divided into small groups and armed with a map and a list of sites to visit. At each site there was a table and several Eiwa teachers, who had a list of all students. When the students arrived at each location, their names were checked off by the teachers, thus ensuring that all students saw everything they were supposed to. (Actually it didn't guarantee that they "saw" anything - only that they had put in an appearance!)
Among the sites the students were assigned to see were the oldest church in Japan, the monument to the 26 Christian martyrs executed in early 17th century, the "one-legged torii" damaged by the atomic bombing, the A-bomb museum and the Roman Catholic church that was unintentionally ground zero. One of the countless tragedies of the bombing was that the weapon missed its target (the Mitsubishi shipyard) by half a mile and, in exploding over the largest Christian church in Japan, destroyed a teaching hospital and killed and injured most of its staff. Certainly the students finished their tour with a clearer understanding of the horrors of war, but nothing in their itinerary gave them any encouragement to reflect on Japan's role in instigating the war in the Pacific.
The following morning, on the way to the airport, we stopped at Shimabara Castle. The castle was important in the early history of Christianity in Japan. Christianity was brought to Japan in the mid 16th Century by Francis Xavier. Its rapid growth in Kyushu caused growing concern to the ruling Tokugawa Clan. When some Christian warlords came to the support of a peasant rebellion in 1637, the clan used the opportunity to send a large force to the Shimabara area to crush the uprising. The obliging Dutch even lobbed a few cannon balls from a warship into the fortress....after all they were Protestant and the rebels were Roman Catholic. All 37,000 defenders were killed by the Shogun's forces This defeat, combined with a long standing persecution of Christians, effectively ended the influence of Christianity in Japan.
After Shimabara, Christianity went underground and small enclaves of people secretly practiced the now outlawed religion. At Shimabara Castle there are various artifacts (principally Buddhist images) inside of which people hid their Christian images. There were also objects whose ornamentation very cleverly included such symbols as the cross. They were indeed brave people, because the possession of any Christian object was punishable by torture and death. To me, the most poignant object on display was an efumi. An efumi was a small plaque with a scene depicting some significant Christian scene, such as the crucifixion, the pieta or the Virgin Mary. After the outlawing of Christianity, each village was responsible for rooting out all believers. In some villages leaders gathered all of the populace and had them, one by one, step on the efumi. Those who didn't were imprisoned or tortured to pressure them to renounce their faith.
The displays at Shimabara were very interesting, especially to anyone with a Christian orientation. Unfortunately, it was at the end of a long and grueling "educational" trip and the students were indifferent, to say the least, to the exhibits. They seemed much more interested in the paintings and sculptures in an adjoining building on the grounds of the castle. They were exhausted, teachers were exhausted and we were all anxious to get on the plane.
Unfortunately for the exhausted teachers, they returned to a traumatized Yamanashi Eiwa Gakuin. The school year ended last week and now the work begins! Big changes are in store for everyone at school! The junior college has built a new campus outside of Kofu. As a result, the high school will occupy those vacated building next year, while the junior high stays at the present site.... sort of. Much of the present structure will be torn down and then a new building will be constructed on the same ground. The plan calls for the destruction of half of the present structure while instruction is going on in the other half. It all means that there's a whole lot of moving and confusion to come! (See pictures below for fast forward!)
Everything has to be packed/wrapped up. Teachers have been told to take everything of a personal nature (including many teaching materials) home and then bring everything back when the new school year begins on April 8th. This means that teachers will have to find room in their already cramped houses and apartments from years of accumulated stuff. The teachers are expected not only to help with the move now, but also they have been told that they will be expected to give up their spring vacation to assist with the changeover!This will all be voluntary, of course, but we all know what that means. Professional movers are coming in to take care of the "big things." Everything else will be packed and moved by the staff and students.
Students Cleaning Desks for Move
It's interesting to note that in spite of the Friday afternoon and evening meetings, working till 6 or after during the week, occasional Saturday commitments and giving up vacation time, I have been told by several teachers that Eiwa treats its staff better than most schools. My observation is that the school expects an awful lot in return!
Best Wishes,
Tom
Update: Before the destruction began, the workers erected a shrine so that a Shinto priest could exorcise evil spirits and purify the area. There must have been some interesting and delicate negotiations with Eiwa officials before this ceremony was allowed. The ritual is a long-held tradition in Japan and is conducted at every construction site before any work proceeds. I was happy to see the ceremony. One of Christianity's major problems in Japan (and elsewhere) is its exclusivity. Japanese religions, on the other hand, are very tolerant and the people freely observe the holidays of both Shintoism and Buddhism. Families have their newborns blessed at a Shinto shrine, see their children married in a Shinto ceremony and have funerals conducted by Buddhist priests. Most Japanese see no conflict in this attitude....it's possible to be religious without being dogmatic.
If you are interested in a more indepth overview of the history and culture of Nagasaki, you might want to check out this link.
