Tottori Prefecture—the least populous prefecture in Japan known for its seafood and stunning natural beauty, including its iconic sand dunes—is now collaborating with Stanford University. The first kanji character of Tottori means “bird” and the recent launching of a new online course, Stanford e-Tottori, is helping high school students to gain a bird’s-eye view of U.S. society and culture with a focus on U.S.–Japan relations.

On July 18, 2016, SPICE Director Gary Mukai participated in an opening ceremony in Tottori for Stanford e-Tottori. The ceremony included opening remarks by Governor Shinji Hirai, greetings from Superintendent of Education Hitoshi Yamamoto, comments by Mukai, and reflections by Tottori native, Takeshi Homma, Founder and CEO at HOMMA, Inc., Silicon Valley. In his comments, Mukai thanked Governor Hirai for his unwavering support of this collaboration between the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education and Stanford University, and also made a historical note about Tottori Prefecture’s relations with the United States by noting, “Hajimu Fujii, who was born in 1886 in Takashiro, Tottori, left Tottori for the United States in 1906. Hajimu Fujii became a Japanese-American community leader in the state of Idaho. In the 1930s, Fujii was recognized as the first Japanese pioneer in large-scale onion farming.”

Mukai was followed by Tottori Nishi High School student Shue Shiinoki, who read a “Resolution Declaration,” representing the 36 students who were selected to participate in the inaugural Stanford e-Tottori course. Mukai and Homma had the pleasure of visiting Tottori Nishi High School as well as Seishokaichi Junior and Senior High School during their visit.

The Stanford e-Tottori course instructor is Jonas Edman, who is an Instructional Designer at SPICE. As of mid-December 2016, Edman has facilitated three “virtual classes” on the following

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Edman, an alumnus of the American School in Japan, recently reflected that the rigor of taking a course solely taught in English has proven to be challenging to the Tottori students but that he is clearly noting progress in the students who are willing to take on the challenge. Koji Tsubaki, Teachers’ Consultant, Tottori Prefectural Board of Education, also recently commented, “Students in Tottori Prefecture are full of excitement to learn about the contents of the SPICE Stanford e-Tottori program, accelerating their development of self-expression skills. They are overflowing with questions for deeper understanding.”

Recently, Edman introduced Stanford e-Tottori to a delegation of business people from Tottori Prefecture who visited SPICE on November 16. The delegation was led by Tottori Bank, Ltd. Chairman Masahiko Miyazaki. Homma was not only instrumental in bringing the delegation to Stanford but also suggested the initial idea of developing Stanford e-Tottori. Chairman Miyazaki expressed his gratitude to Homma, Edman, and Mukai for making Stanford e-Tottori a reality.

During the delegation’s tour of Stanford University, many of the business people expressed hopes that their own children or grandchildren will someday be able to enroll in Stanford e-Tottori. Many also expressed agreement with one of the goals of Stanford e-Tottori, that is, to encourage students in Tottori to study in the United States either as exchange students or as undergraduate or graduate students.

Given Japan’s national focus on internationalizing the curriculum and preparing students to “think globally,” the timing of Stanford e-Tottori is ideal. SPICE’s hope is that someday the Tottori students’ birds-eye view of U.S. society and culture with a focus on U.S.–Japan relations—provided through Stanford e-Tottori—will become useful background information for them when they visit the United States as students, as business people, or in other capacities.

The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) honored top students of the 2016 Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP) and Stanford e-Japan (Spring Session) at “Japan–U.S. Day”—an event held at Stanford University on August 9, 2016. The RSP honorees were Pierce Lowary (Highland Park High School, Dallas, Texas), Sarah Ohta (Polytechnic High School, Pasadena, California), and Risako Yang (Castilleja School, Palo Alto, California), and the Stanford e-Japan honorees were Miyu Hayashi (Takada High School, Mie Prefecture) and Minoru Takeuchi (Senior High School at Otsuka, University of Tsukuba, Tokyo).

Japan–U.S. Day began with opening remarks by the Honorable Jun Yamada, Consul General of Japan in San Francisco. Praising the honorees and their fellow students for their dedication to the study of U.S.–Japan relations, Consul General Yamada noted, “The U.S.–Japan relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world today,” and underscored the importance of programs such as the RSP and Stanford e-Japan in engaging youth in the study of this critical relationship.

Stanford e-Japan Instructor Waka Takahashi Brown and RSP Instructor Naomi Funahashi presented overviews of the two programs to the audience of over 50 people, which included Ambassador Michael Armacost (former U.S. Ambassador to Japan), Consul Akira Ichioka (Director, Japan Information and Cultural Center, Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco), Professor Indra Levy (Stanford University), Professor Emeritus Daniel Okimoto (Stanford University), and Maiko Tamagawa (Advisor for Educational Affairs, Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco).

The students were recognized by Brown and Funahashi for their overall coursework performance, which included research essays. They articulately presented their research that focused on topics ranging from legacies of World War II and security issues to urban planning in Japan, longevity, and non-profit organizations, and they adroitly addressed questions from the audience.

[[{"fid":"223802","view_mode":"crop_870xauto","fields":{"format":"crop_870xauto","field_file_image_description[und][0][value]":"Ambassador Armacost chats with student honoree, Minoru Takeuchi","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_credit[und][0][value]":"Rylan Sekiguchi","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_related_image_aspect[und][0][value]":"","thumbnails":"crop_870xauto"},"type":"media","attributes":{"width":"870","style":"padding: 6px; float: left; width: 420px; height: 267px;","class":"media-element file-crop-870xauto"}}]]This year marked the first time that a joint RSP/Stanford e-Japan event was held to honor students. Reflecting on the event, Funahashi commented, “It was a great opportunity to recognize the impressive work of young U.S.–Japan scholars. And seeing them engage in cross-cultural dialogue in person after months of online interaction was a real treat.” Brown agreed, adding, “For my students, having the opportunity to interact with peers from the United States was one of the highlights of the program. To see all the RSP and Stanford e-Japan award winners honored at the same event was extremely rewarding and gave me great hope for the future of U.S.–Japan relations.” The audience seemed to feel similarly. “It was wonderful seeing the American and Japanese students interact with one another,” said Ambassador Armacost. “Their remarks were thoughtful and articulate. It was a model of timely educational exchange.”

SPICE has received numerous grants in support of the RSP (since its inception in 2003) from the United States-Japan Foundation, the Center for Global Partnership (The Japan Foundation), and the Japan Fund, which is administered by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Stanford e-Japan (since its inception in 2015) has been supported by a grant from the United States-Japan Foundation.

On May 27, 2016, President Obama will become the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima. In light of this historic visit, SPICE hosted a webinar on May 23, 2016, which featured the talk, “Beneath the Mushroom Cloud,” by Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of President Harry S. Truman and author of Growing Up with My Grandfather: Memories of Harry S Truman. Following a question and answer period with Mr. Daniel, SPICE staff shared classroom resources (Sadako’s Paper Cranes and Lessons of Peace and Divided Memories) that introduced diverse perspectives on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

RELATED CLASSROOM RESOURCES

Hiroshima: Perspectives of the Atomic Bombing
Divided Memories: Comparing History Textbooks
Examining Long-term Radiation Effects
Nuclear Tipping Point (video)
Sadako's Paper Cranes and Lessons of Peace
Reflections from an Atomic Bomb Survivor (video)

This webinar is being offered in collaboration with the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, which is funded by the Freeman Foundation. The NCTA is a multi-year initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in elementary and secondary schools nationwide.

Thirty sophomores and juniors in Osaka, Japan, recently completed the inaugural Stanford e-Course on Global Health for Takatsuki Senior High School. The course, jointly developed and offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and Takatsuki Senior High School, provided students with a broad overview of the importance of global health with a special focus on a few pioneering examples of international work conducted by researchers at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University and the Stanford University School of Medicine. The course provided students of Takatsuki High’s Global Advanced Course with unique opportunities to interact with top global health researchers including the following: Scott Rozelle, PhD, the Helen F. Farnsworth Senior Fellow at FSI and Co-director of the Rural Education Action Program; Kathryn M. McDonald, MM, Executive Director of the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research at Stanford (CHP/PCOR); Phillip C. Yang, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine); C. Jason Wang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics; Nomita Divi, Project Manager of the Stanford India Health Policy Initiative; and Karen Eggleston, PhD, Director of the Asia Health Policy Program, and Center Fellow at CHP/PCOR.

From September 2015 to February 2016, the students participated in eight web-based lectures, or “virtual classes,” in English and had the opportunity to engage the guest lecturers in question and answer sessions. The virtual classes covered a variety of topics ranging from stem cell research to building a health care system from scratch. The students completed reading and homework assignments for each topic.

“Teaching this course, I felt the students were given the unique experience to practice and improve their English language abilities in the context of global health and they rose to the challenge. And the guest lecturers were excellent role models to my students,” commented course instructor Sabrina Ishimatsu. “They provided non-Japanese perspectives on global health that may have a strong influence on students aspiring to attend medical school or to pursue their studies in other health-related fields.”

The course’s distinct mix of content with cross-cultural and linguistic aspects was also appreciated by Tsuyoshi Kudo, Takatsuki’s Vice Principal. “Through this course the students learned it is possible and it is enjoyable to learn something new in English,” he said. “I think education at school is to help students realize their potential. In this sense, I feel very pleased that SPICE/Stanford and Takatsuki were able to offer this great course.”

Following his talk on stem cell research, guest lecturer Phillip C. Yang, MD, said, “I truly enjoyed the online experience with the students, and they were very intelligent, inquisitive, and conscientious. During the Q&A their questions were very insightful and relevant. I appreciate the opportunity to experience this unique teaching method.”

The primary aim of the course was to nurture future global leaders who have a profound awareness of the significance of global health. Students who successfully completed the course earned a Certificate of Completion from SPICE, Stanford University.

For more information, please email Sabrina Ishimatsu, course instructor, at sishi@stanford.edu.

On February 12, 2016, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and Stanford Live (in collaboration with the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia) co-hosted a teacher professional development seminar that focused on the Silk Road. The seminar was held just prior to a Stanford Live performance by the Silk Road Ensemble at Stanford Bing Concert Hall on February 24, 2016 and a student matinee on February 25, 2016. Made up of performers and composers from more than 20 countries, the Silk Road Ensemble was formed under the artistic direction of Yo-Yo Ma in 2000.

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Jonas Edman (SPICE) and Ben Frandzel (Stanford Live) organized the day-long seminar. The morning featured a two-part lecture by Professor Emeritus Albert E. Dien, Stanford University. Part one focused on a general overview of the history and geography of the Silk Road and part two focused on a specific introduction to the religions along the Silk Road. Dr. Dien highlighted religion as an example of the many ways that the Silk Road helped to facilitate cultural exchange for millennia, resulting in the tremendous diversity one witnesses today in the region.

The afternoon featured a presentation and performance by composer and santur player Faraz Minooei, and a curriculum demonstration by SPICE staff. Minooei gave an overview of how the Silk Road played a role in the transmission of musical tradition, and also shared his personal story from his birth and childhood in Tehran, his immigrant experience in the United States, and his musical discoveries along the way. In particular, he shared his reflections on his deep spiritual desire to study music, seeing music as an “unexplainable souvenir from the eternal truth.”

Reflecting on Minooei’s presentation, Frandzel commented, “Faraz’s presentation really embodied the ways in which the Silk Road’s tradition of cultural exchange is a living story that continues to this day. His performances of Persian classical music and of his own compositions were entrancing, ear-opening experiences. As Faraz discussed his background and the musical forms that feed into his current work, his personal history and music seemed to encapsulate, in a fast-moving way, the kinds of cultural mixing that would have happened along the historic Silk Road. In our teacher workshops, we aim to provide teachers with arts-based teaching tools, and also to provide a larger social and cultural context for the art forms under discussion. The wonderful opportunity to partner with SPICE on the workshop, and the presence of this fascinating and brilliant musician, made this so much more possible.”

The curriculum demonstration was led by Rylan Sekiguchi, Naomi Funahashi, and Johanna Wee, who introduced both print- and web-based materials from the curriculum unit, Along the Silk Road, which were developed in collaboration with the Silk Road Ensemble and Dr. Dien. The 20 teachers in attendance interactively engaged with the materials and each received a complimentary copy of the curriculum unit as well as a large wall map of the Silk Road. The development of such materials has been a hallmark of SPICE for 40 years. The materials help to make content from teacher professional development seminars accessible to students.

Following the seminar, Edman reflected, “It is always such a pleasure to share with teachers the curriculum we produce here at SPICE. And to be able to collaborate with Stanford Live on a professional development workshop in conjunction with the Silk Road Ensemble’s visit to Stanford was a wonderful opportunity and experience. The Silk Road—with its themes of cross-cultural communication, exchange, and understanding—seems like an ideal topic for middle school students trying to understand today’s globalized world. We hope the speakers and pedagogical strategies and materials shared at the workshop will help teachers bring the topic to life in the classroom!”

My daughter, Emily, was teaching English at a middle school in Asahi City, Chiba Prefecture, on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program when the 2011 Tohoku earthquake struck on March 11, 2011. Tohoku is a region in the northeast portion of the island of Honshu, the largest island in Japan. Though Asahi City, a coastal city, is not in the Tohoku region, it was still heavily damaged by the resulting tsunami. Several of Emily’s students lost their homes. She was emotionally shaken, of course, but was fortunate not to sustain any injuries.

With the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami approaching, I have been reflecting upon the tremendous anxiety that I felt that day about Emily’s safety, my wife’s family in Tohoku, and the people of Japan in general. My reflections deepened last week while observing the interaction of SPICE’s Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP) students (American high school students studying about Japan) with SPICE’s Stanford e-Japan students (Japanese high school students studying about the United States) in an informal online “social hour.” The RSP and Stanford e-Japan are distance-learning courses that are offered by SPICE.

Stanford e-Japan instructor Waka Brown and RSP instructor Naomi Funahashi organized the social hour to help to build bridges between youth in Japan and the United States. During the latter part of the social hour, RSP student, David Jaffe (Mesa, Arizona), posed the question, “How is 3.11 remembered today?” Among the many Stanford e-Japan students who spoke was Minoru Takeuchi (Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture), who stated, “When the earthquake happened, I was an elementary school student (12 years old). I still remember very well… at that time, I was in school. Some students were very afraid and crying… Maybe after the earthquake, many Japanese noticed the importance of working together, the preciousness that they could meet their friends…” The Japanese students’ sharing of their experiences related to 3.11 extended the social hour far beyond the hour, and the gratitude expressed by the American students to their counterparts in Japan flowed for many minutes in a text-chat box.

Observing the students was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career at SPICE. The Japanese students’ remembrances of 3.11 brought back poignant and difficult memories for me but also provided me with hopeful thoughts on the future of the U.S.–Japan relationship as I witnessed students from across the Pacific forming budding friendships and discussing topics of mutual relevance.
 

Resources for the classroom
 

My hope is that teachers will carve out some time in their curriculum to engage their students in a study of 3.11 as well as its legacies. The study of natural hazards ought to be a core part of school curriculum. SPICE has undertaken many curricular projects related to 3.11. I would recommend that teachers show the film, After the Darkness, which was produced by Risa Morimoto and Funahashi. After the Darkness is a documentary film that touches upon the events of the disaster itself but also focuses on the experiences of two survivors in particular. It is accompanied with free curricular lessons that are accessible to students of various ages. I also recommend a lecture by Professor Emeritus Daniel Okimoto, Stanford University, on “Japan’s Geological Factors,” which is accompanied by a free lesson plan. Another recommended curricular unit is SPICE’s Examining Long-term Radiation Effects, which was produced prior to 3.11 but can help students understand the radiation-related concerns following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. In addition, the film, Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story, is about one of two American JET Program teachers who lost their lives during 3.11. SPICE developed a teacher’s guide for the film that can be freely downloaded from the Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story website. Lastly, I recommend the use of the films from the 113 Project in classrooms. Earlier this week, I moderated a panel discussion that included Wesley Julian (director of the 113 Project), Andy Anderson (father of Taylor Anderson and board member of the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund) as well as other Americans and Japanese who continue to contribute to relief efforts in the Tohoku region.