December 7, 2021 marked the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. On the occasion of the anniversary, Professor Yujin Yaguchi, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo, gave a lecture on Pearl Harbor to high school students enrolled in SPICE’s Stanford e-Japan, which is taught by Instructor Meiko Kotani. Yaguchi has been an advisor to both Stanford e-Japan and SPICE’s Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP), an online course about Japan and U.S.–Japan relations that is offered to high school students in the United States and is taught by Instructor Naomi Funahashi. From 2004 to 2009, I worked with Yaguchi during the “Pearl Harbor: History, Memory, and Memorial” summer institutes for American and Japanese teachers that were hosted by the AsiaPacificEd Program for Schools, East-West Center, Honolulu.

Prior to Yaguchi’s lecture, Kotani compiled questions from her students to share with Yaguchi, and he used them to conceptualize his lecture. The students were also required to view a lecture by Stanford Emeritus Professor Peter Duus on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Yaguchi informed the students that he would be introducing diverse perspectives on the Pearl Harbor attack and also encouraged students to think about the questions that they had written while he delivered his lecture. He encouraged them to consider two questions that he devised based on the students’ questions: “Why do you ask such questions?” and “What do the questions tell you about how you think of the past and today?” Yaguchi noted, “I am kind of spinning the table around.”

Yaguchi set the context for his talk by giving a brief geographic and historical background of Pearl Harbor. He pointed out that for ancient Hawaiians, the name of the harbor now known as Pearl Harbor was Puʻuloa, regarded as the home of the shark goddess, Kaʻahupāhau. Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the U.S. Navy established a base on the island in 1899. Over the years, Pearl Harbor, along with the Naval Base San Diego, remained a main base for the U.S. Pacific Fleet after World War II. He also noted that Pearl Harbor is the most popular destination in Hawaii for American visitors.

Yaguchi pointed out that the excellent questions from the students were primarily about the United States and Japan. He posed the question, “But is Pearl Harbor really only about the U.S. and Japan?” and encouraged students to critically consider the following points, which were the five key points of his lecture.

1. We need to see history in a longer and wider perspective.
2. History is not only about powerful nation states.
3. History is not only about (mostly male) politicians and leaders making decisions.
4. Pearl Harbor means different things to many people.
5. We need to see Pearl Harbor from multiple angles—especially from the perspectives of race and gender (non-white, non-Japanese, non-male)—those who have been making/writing history.
    

He followed up each point with specific questions. For example, “What does Pearl Harbor mean to the indigenous people of Hawaii or the Native Hawaiians?”; and “Was Pearl Harbor an attack on the United States” or “Was Pearl Harbor an attack on Native Hawaiians as well?” were follow-up questions to point number four. Yaguchi pointed out that he was born and raised in Hokkaido, the northern-most main island of Japan, and to his surprise one of the students mentioned that he lives in Kushiro, a city in Hokkaido that is Yaguchi’s ancestral hometown. Since the Ainu are an indigenous people from the northern region of Japan, particularly Hokkaido, Yaguchi’s questions prompted some students to think about parallels between the Ainu and Native Hawaiians.

The five key points of his lecture led to many questions during the question-and-answer period. One student asked, “Is there anything that you keep in mind when teaching Japanese about American history or specific events such as Pearl Harbor?” Yaguchi replied, “At the University of Tokyo, I really encourage students to think about why you learn history in specific ways. Who decides what you need to study? I also encourage students to be critical of the education that you receive. University years are a time for you to reassess what you learn… We living in Japan or educating in Japan tend to connect Pearl Harbor as the beginning and the atomic bombs as the ending… or the cause and the effect. And this is a very common way of framing history. People in the United States do not necessarily think so.”

While listening to Yaguchi’s lecture, I reflected upon UTokyo Compass, which is the University of Tokyo President Teruo Fujii’s statement of the guiding principles of the University of Tokyo—the ideals to which the university should aspire and the direction it should take, under the title “Into a Sea of Diversity: Creating the Future through Dialogue.” In his lecture, Yaguchi extended the reach of UTokyo Compass to Stanford e-Japan high school students throughout Japan. Kotani and I were most appreciative the ripple effect of UTokyo Compass that he provided through his lecture. Kotani stated, “I am so grateful to Professor Yaguchi for introducing my students to not only diverse perspectives on Pearl Harbor but also for engaging them in questions related to epistemology.”

UTokyo Compass prompted me think about the importance of one’s “moral compass,” or a person’s ability to judge what is right and wrong and to act accordingly. Through Stanford e-Japan and the RSP, Kotani, Funahashi, and I hope to encourage high school students to remember to navigate their academic and professional careers with their own moral compass. In addition, as a compass always follows true north, I think that leaders should follow a set of unwavering personal values, including integrity. The students in Stanford e-Japan and the RSP are among the best and brightest in Japan and the United States and future leaders. I encourage them to singlehandedly change the world, to be changemakers.

Moving from Tokyo to California in second grade, I knew very little about my home country. I may have looked and spoken Japanese, but the more time I spent in the United States, the more I felt like my identity strayed away from my Japanese cultural roots. For most of my life, I was hesitant to proudly call myself a Japanese American simply due to the lack of knowledge I had about my home country.

That was until I stumbled upon Stanford’s Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP), an online program that introduced Japanese history, society, culture, and the U.S.–Japan relationship. With its focus on deepening cross-cultural knowledge, this was the perfect opportunity to reconnect with my cultural roots.

On the first day of the RSP, I was astounded by the diversity of the students that were present. Students in the program were from all around the country, each showing unique individual interests and strengths that they added to the class. Alongside these friendly and committed students led by our brilliant instructor Ms. Naomi Funahashi, the RSP provided a motivated and collaborative environment to learn about my home country. The activities in our virtual classes included not only the review of insightful readings that we were assigned, but also the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to meet top scholars and experts in U.S.–Japan relations and ambassadors. Having had the chance to converse with these speakers, we were introduced to significant ideas and insights about the U.S.–Japan relationship that developed my diverse perspective on the topic.

Throughout the course of the program, the inclusive environment of the virtual classrooms allowed us to comfortably share and challenge ideas we would bring up. With each of us from very different backgrounds, we were able to have insightful conversations about the cause of isolationism in Japan, the effect of industrialization on the Japanese economy, and many other concepts about Japanese history and culture.

To me, the most memorable days of the RSP were the joint virtual classrooms with the Stanford e-Japan program. Through these joint classrooms, we had the opportunity to converse with Japanese high school students, where we were able to deepen our mutual cross-cultural understanding. From the bunkasai, to the undokai, to juku, these joint classrooms gave us the opportunity to learn more about the exciting Japanese culture and contemporary society from a primary source. With nearly no opportunity to speak with Japanese students outside of my family during my time in the United States, I was able to take away many valuable insights I keep to this day thanks to the unique opportunity given by the RSP. With each meeting with these students, I was given a clearer image of what it truly meant to be “Japanese.”

Applications opened recently for the Spring 2022 session of the Stanford University Scholars Program for Japanese High School Students (also known as “Stanford e-Japan”), which will run from mid-February through the end of June 2022. The deadline to apply is December 31, 2021.

Stanford e-Japan Program for high school students in Japan
Spring 2022 session (February to June 2022)
Application period: November 15 to December 31, 2021

All applications must be submitted at https://spicestanford.smapply.io/prog/stanford_e-japan/ via the SurveyMonkey Apply platform. Applicants and recommenders will need to create a SurveyMonkey Apply account to proceed. Students who are interested in applying to the online course are encouraged to begin their applications early.

Accepted applicants will engage in an intensive study of U.S. society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations. Ambassadors, top scholars, and experts from Stanford University and throughout the United States provide web-based lectures and engage students in live discussion sessions.

“Participating in Stanford e-Japan has been one of the highlights of my high school experience,” reflected Fall 2020 honoree Allison Lin. “Through the course, I gained the opportunity to learn from intelligent and experienced scholars which I wouldn’t have had otherwise and found myself aspiring to be like them in the future.”

Stanford e-Japan is offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University. The Spring 2022 session of Stanford e-Japan is generously supported by the Yanai Tadashi Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.

For more information about Stanford e-Japan, please visit stanfordejapan.org.

To stay informed of news about Stanford e-Japan and SPICE’s other student programs, join our email list or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPICE offers separate courses for U.S. high school students. For more information, please visit the Reischauer Scholars Program (on Japan), the Sejong Scholars Program (on Korea), and the China Scholars Program (on China).

My first visit to the University of Tokyo was in autumn 1977. I distinctly recall walking through Akamon and being in awe of the contrast between the autumn leaves and the red gate. I last walked through Akamon in autumn 2019. I had kindly been invited by Professor Hideto Fukudome, Director, Center for Advanced School Education and Evidence-based Research (CASEER), to give a guest lecture on “University–High School Collaboration” at the Graduate School of Education. I was scheduled to visit again in March 2020 but my trip had to be canceled due to the pandemic. Despite the pandemic, Fukudome conceptualized a lecture series that would allow SPICE staff to virtually walk through Akamon to collaborate with CASEER faculty and University of Tokyo students.

On November 1, 2021, the lecture series—SPICE/Stanford–UTokyo Partnership on International and Cross-Cultural Education and Global Citizenship—was launched. The goal of the lecture series is to provide a platform to share current research and practice. The discussions will ideally result in opportunities to collaborate between both organizations, and also opportunities for student engagement.

Fukudome delivered the first lecture, “Multiculturalism and Classical Tradition in Liberal Education: Comparative and Historical Perspectives.” Since his was the first lecture of the series, he opened by sharing important information about the University of Tokyo to help set the context for the series. This included the vision of the new president of the University of Tokyo—including an emphasis on diversity and inclusiveness—and information about University of Tokyo admissions. President Teruo Fujii’s vision is captured in UTokyo Compass, a statement of the guiding principles of the University of Tokyo that is titled “Into a Sea of Diversity: Creating the Future through Dialogue.” It focuses on the need to build a democratic society in which each individual can live with respect.

Sprinkled in his lecture were comparisons between the University of Tokyo and Stanford University. One of the comparisons—that 20 percent of undergraduates at the University of Tokyo are women, versus 51 percent of undergraduates at Stanford University—was very surprising to the SPICE staff and prompted discussion. He also noted that most students are admitted solely based upon test scores, and that only three percent are admitted through a process translated in English as “self-recommendation,” which is a more holistic review process to determine admissions. In addition, he noted that in Japan, universities do not identify students’ socio-economic background in the admissions process.

In the heart of his lecture, Fukudome shared comments on the many different ways of thinking about liberal education in the United States. He noted two major trends that form the ideological foundation of liberal education. One is the classical approach, or the idea that the cultural and spiritual foundation of the United States is to be found in Europe and that the core of liberal education is to learn about Western civilization, which originated in Greece and Rome. The second is multiculturalism, or seeing the cultural origins of the United States as diverse and made up of many races and ethnic groups. He noted, “These ideas are often viewed in opposition to each other over the undergraduate curriculum. From the perspective of how to think about the ideological basis of the curriculum, both ideas can provide suggestions for Japan. In this sense, the ideological debate over liberal education in the United States has an essential meaning for Japan as well.”

The SPICE staff is looking forward to further exchanging ideas with Fukudome and his CASEER colleagues and the University of Tokyo students on topics related to liberal education and other topics of mutual interest. The second session on December 6, 2021 will focus on SPICE’s online instruction for high school students, including Stanford e-Japan, SPICE’s first online course for high school students in Japan that is supported by the Yanai Tadashi Foundation. The following are the list of speakers and their topics for the first six session of the lecture series.

• 1st session: November 1, Hideto Fukudome, University of Tokyo, Multiculturalism and Classical Tradition in Liberal Education: Comparative and Historical Perspectives
• 2nd session: December 6, Gary Mukai, SPICE/Stanford, Online Instruction for High School Students
• 3rd session: January 10, Yuto Kitamura, University of Tokyo, Teaching and Learning Transversal Competencies Through Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Implications from a Survey Conducted in Yokohama City
• 4th session: February 7, Rylan Sekiguchi, SPICE/Stanford, Curriculum and Instruction: What Does It Mean to Be an American?  
• 5th session: February 28, Misako Nukaga, University of Tokyo, Visibilizing the Second Generation Immigrants in Japan: Divergent Pathways of Acculturation and Educational Inequality
• 6th session: April 4, Mariko Yang-Yoshihara, SPICE/Stanford, Learning Assessment in Online Courses
   

The University of Tokyo faculty members who are participating in the lecture series all have experiences in the United States. Listed alphabetically, they are:

• Hideto Fukudome, Director & Professor (Former Visiting Scholar at U.C. Berkeley and Penn State)
• Yuto Kitamura, Deputy Director & Professor (PhD, UCLA)
• Kayoko Kurita, Professor (Former Visiting Scholar at Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford)
• Kanako Kusanagi, Assistant Professor (BA, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
• Yusuke Murakami, Associate Professor (Former Visiting Scholar at U.C. Berkeley)
• Misako Nukaga, Associate Professor (PhD, UCLA)
   

SPICE’s Maiko Tamagawa Bacha is a graduate of the University of Tokyo and following the first session commented, “The lecture series brought back fond memories of my time at the University of Tokyo as an undergraduate. In particular, it was touching to see one of my fellow undergraduate students—Misako Nukaga, now an associate professor at the University of Tokyo—in attendance! I am grateful to Professor Fukudome for bringing us together again and for also bringing my academic and work institutions together.”

Since UTokyo Compass underscores (1) the importance of a university as a place where diverse people gather to discuss, share, and solve problems and (2) the importance for students to think from multiple perspectives, I hope that the collaboration with SPICE will help to support UTokyo Compass. These two points have been central pillars of SPICE since its beginning in 1976.