Study tour brings Fukushima University students to UW–Madison
In the days leading up to the third anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Madison will host a group of students from Fukushima University, who will speak at a public event about their lives back home.
The 23 Japanese students — accompanied by two chaperones and a guide — are in the United States on a study tour, called the “The Kakehashi Project – The Bridge for Tomorrow,” which will bring them to Madison on March 8-11, between stops on the East and West coasts.
On Sunday, March 9, the students will be featured at a public program and reception, 1:30-4:30 p.m., at the Unitarian Meeting House, 900 University Bay Drive. Their presentations on life today in Fukushima will address such topics as the education of children, local communities after the earthquake, the current condition and future of Fukushima, and reflections on disaster recovery.
On March 11, 2011, a tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake struck the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in a meltdown of three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors.
The visit by the Fukushima students follows on a 10-day visit to Japan – although not in the Fukushima region – last May by 23 University of Wisconsin–Madison students, also part of the Kakehashi Project. Charo D’Etcheverry, UW–Madison associate professor of Japanese literature, accompanied the UW students and has been coordinating plans for the Madison visit by the Japanese students.
“It’s exciting to have our students see themselves and their peers as actors in history, not just witnesses of it,” D’Etcheverry says. “Even just talking with the group from Fukushima during the visit, Badgers will be building ties with fellow leaders in a generation that is going to need a lot of global teamwork. That’s important for all of us.”
Working through the Japan-U.S. Educational Commission, the Japanese government launched the Kakehashi Project is “to encourage greater understanding between the youth of Japan and the United States and to foster long-term and ongoing interest in one another by providing firsthand experiences with the culture of the other.” The Japan-U.S. Educational Commission has been collaborating with the Japan Foundation, the Japan International Cooperation Center and the Laurasian Institution.
Local support for the students’ visit is being provided by the Madison-Obihiro Sister Cities, UW–Madison’s Center for East Asian Studies and Department of East Asian Languages and Literature, and the Bird Fund.