There were lots of tight hugs and selfies on a recent Thursday morning as students from Okinawa, Japan, bade farewell to their Nathan Hale High School peers.
The Japanese visitors had spent about two weeks with Seattle students and their families, sitting through classes, brushing up on their English and taking in the city’s sights and culture.
This year’s visit marked the 50th anniversary of the cultural exchange program between Nathan Hale and Naha Senior High School in Naha, Okinawa prefecture’s capital city, according to the school.
Just moments before the 12 students and their two teachers boarded a black coach for Vancouver, B.C., their next stop, the symphonic band serenaded them in a parade down the main hallway one last time.
“I feel really sad right now,” said James Muhlfelder, a senior and president of the school’s Naha Club. But Muhlfelder was also excited that he’d see newfound friends in July when Nathan Hale students visit Naha.
“It’s going to go by really fast,” he said of the next few months. “It’s going to be really hard not seeing them here.”
Educators said the exchange program fosters cultural understanding and helps students improve their language proficiency. It also instills crucial life skills, such as problem-solving and independence.
Naomi Hayashi, the vice principal of Naha Senior High School, said this was the first trip away from home for some.
“It is a very important experience for the students to be independent,” she said. “To be away from their parents, they have to think and decide for themselves. It’s a good chance for the students to grow up.”
Atsuko Yamaguchi, a Japanese and math teacher at Nathan Hale and one of the organizers, said students who travel to Japan return as “changed people.”
“They are more mature, very compassionate to other global situations, kind to others, and understanding the difference between the two countries and other countries,” she said.
The Japanese leg includes a tour of mainland Japan, with stops in Kyoto, Tokyo and Hiroshima, where they visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
“They learn a lot from their (the Japanese) side of history, not just the American side of the story,” she said. “It’s very emotional.”
Once in Naha, students stay with a host family and shadow a Naha student for about two weeks. Parents generally fund the trip. At least one student is working to cover the cost.
Charades and Google Translate
Both groups see the similarities and differences between the two countries and school systems. The temperature difference is always a big one. While Nathan Hale students switch classes during periods, Naha teachers go from classroom to classroom. Naha students also wear uniforms, which Nathan Hale students don’t.
Daikichi Kitashiro, who stayed with Bee Weston’s family, said he enjoyed his trip and would love to return when he gets older.
The highlight for him and many other exchange students was a tubing trip to Snoqualmie Pass. They had been looking forward to seeing snow and skiing for the first time.
“I ate so many burgers,” he said, also citing the Space Needle visit as a top excursion.
It was a reunion of sorts for Kitashiro and Weston — “a proper exchange,” according to Weston, because she stayed with Kitashiro’s family in Japan last year.
“It’s always one of my favorite parts of the year,” she said.
Weston said it might have gotten a tad difficult for Kitashiro, who attended all of her classes, which were in English. While he had friends in some of those classes, that wasn’t always the case, he said.
“My teachers were always very helpful, especially my history teacher,” Weston said.
Communicating was also tricky, but the families made it work. Video games are universal, and Google Translate is a godsend, they said. Some families also got creative, with lots of hand movements and Pictionary, according to one student.
“I am glad that my mom was an art major,” said Ian Cook, who hosted this year and visited Japan last year. “Her drawings were very communicative. There were a lot of charades as well. Full body.”
Cook relied on about 100 action words, which he said “worked out really well.”
“It’s almost like coming up with a new language,” he said.
With his friends gone, the memories abound at school and in the city.
“Because they were sharing our lives — pretty much one-to-one — everywhere I go I get reminded of them,” he said. “Which is sweet and also kind of sad.”
“A cultural exchange for everyone”
While the Japanese students stayed with host students’ families, school officials said everyone benefited — from the students who welcomed them in the hallways, those who sat with them in art and language classes to the teachers who compared notes with the Japanese educators.
“This is a cultural exchange for everyone,” said Leland Swarts, a teacher at Nathan Hale and one of the trip’s organizers. Students can also get a glimpse of Okinawan history and culture, which is distinct from Japanese culture, by browsing the huge display case near the school’s entrance, which contains years of gifts the Naha visitors have bestowed on the school.
The school got a dose of that during a welcome ceremony to celebrate the milestone on the students’ first day. After speeches by dignitaries — including Mayor Bruce Harrell, Superintendent Brent Jones and Japanese Consul General Makoto Iyori — the visitors presented their hosts with a bingata, a centuries-old traditional Okinawan dyeing technique, to celebrate the half-century relationship, a framed photograph of the students making the bingata, and a new photograph of Naha Senior High School.
The Japanese students also performed three traditional Okinawan dances, including the nuchibana, which they practiced for about a month and a half, said Reiko Maeara, one of their teachers.
The program has fostered intergenerational bonds. Momoko Kinra, one of this year’s exchange students, was the second in her family to participate in the program, and she hopes her younger sister follows suit in a few years.
A friendship grows through generations
Liz Behlke has remained friends with Naoko Nakama, whom her family hosted in 1977. Behlke was part of the first group of Seattle students to go to Okinawa two years later.
The two hit it off right away and now consider themselves sisters, with their relationship evolving from snail mail to email to texting to FaceTime. They’ve seen each other in person about a dozen times since they first met.
The relationship is now intergenerational. Behlke’s parents have visited Nakama’s family in Okinawa, and Nakama has brought her parents to Seattle to spend time with Behlke’s family. She’s visited Nathan Hale each time.
Nakama’s sons even stayed with Behlke when she lived in Anchorage. And when Behlke took her daughter, Aurora, to visit Nakama’s family when she was younger, the parents handed her a beautifully wrapped envelope with money, which is traditionally given to a grandchild visiting for the first time, she said.
“They were basically ceremoniously saying you are our granddaughter,” Behlke said.
Nakama’s father lost family members in World War II, but despite their countries’ past the two families were able to build a close relationship.
About 13,000 people of Japanese ancestry from Washington state were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were incarcerated under the War Relocation Authority, according to Densho, a nonprofit that chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans during the war.
“But over that, we could be friends, and we could exchange our ideas,” Behlke said. “History is there, but still, we can be friends and have mutual understanding.”
Behlke remains grateful for the lifelong friendship. The two joke about being “2OL,” two old ladies.
“I wish every kid had this kind of opportunity, almost as a default,” Behlke said.