Posts published in “KAKEHASHI Project US-Japan”

By Seina Manabe, University of Shimane

Students from Shimane and Yamagata Prefectures made a joint presentation of Japanese dialects at Windward Community College in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 12. While the University of Shimane is in the south and Yamagata University is in the north of Japan, our hometowns are scattered across Japan, so we were able to demonstrate the variety of Japanese dialects.

We decided to show simple Japanese expressions in local dialects across Japan such as “yes,”  “eat it,” “come again,” “let’s keep trying,” “I like you,” and “thank you.”

While the formal way of saying “yes” is “hai, ” we were amazed at the diversity of the more colloquial “u-n.” For example, in standard Japanese it is pronounced as “u-n,” which is also used in Ibaraki, Aichi, Ehime, and Kagawa Prefectures, but it is pronounced as “ja-no” in Hiroshima, “so-ge” in Shimane, “n-da” in Aomori, “n-da-zu” in Yamagata, and “n-da-cha” in Miyagai.

There is also a great diversity in how to say “thank you”:  “ari-gato” in Ibaraki, “anga-tono” in Hiroshima, “dan-dan” in Ehime and Shimane, “moke-dano” or “o-sho-na” in Yamagata, and “arigato-gozaisu” in Miyagi.

The endings of “come again” varied a lot too: “matakitara-yokappe” in Ibaraki, “mata-korin” in Aichi, “mata-kite-kunnaiya” in Niigata, “matakin-chyaine” in Hiroshima, “mata-kimai” in Kagawa, “mata-oideya” in Ehime, “mata-kite-goshinai” in Shimane, “mata-kite-keroya” in Aomori, “mata-kitero” in Yamagata, and “mata-gozain” in Miyagi.

Everyone felt very shy when they said “I love you” in their local dialects because Japanese seldom express their emotions. The ending also varied from the standard expression of “suki-da.”

We did not know how to express  “gan-ba-ro,” a common Japanese phrase in English. It can be translated into English such as “let’s keep trying,” “keep at it,” “keep working,” “try harder,” or “never give up,” depending on the context. We hear this phrase very often when people encourage each other when facing challenges. Again the endings were all different in different dialects.

The presentation went very well and it seems the students at Windward Community College enjoyed listening to our demonstration. It is very difficult to fully convey the intimate and nostalgic feelings we have when we speak with dialects because the intonations of each dialect are very special. For example, in Aichi “thank you” is written as “arigato,” just the same as in standard Japanese, but the middle syllable is raised in the local dialect. Similarly, when saying “I love you” in the Aichi dialect, the “ra” sound in “dera-suki-yani,” must be elongated. Such fine nuances cannot be transcribed in writing.

We would like to thank Professor Swan for giving us this opportunity to introduce Japanese dialects to the Windward Community College students. Preparing for this presentation made us realize how important dialects are. We remembered sweet memories with grandma, grandpa, mom and dad, and old friends. Using dialects automatically connects us to our hometowns. We found that dialects formed our identities. We are very grateful for this opportunity.

By Kazuki Mizuno

John Manjiro is the first Japanese who set foot on U. S. soil. He is a figure who represents the relationship between Japan and the United States.

John Manjiro was a young fisherman born in Japan. When he was 14 years old, his boat was shipwrecked off the coast of Japan and he and his friends were washed ashore on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

They were rescued by an American ship and taken to Honolulu, Hawaii. They wanted to go back to Japan, but it was impossible for them to return to Japan because Japan at that time was a secluded country. Even Japanese were not allowed to return to their home country. Four of them decided to stay in Honolulu, but John decided to head for the U. S. mainland. The captain of the ship, Capt. Whitfield, adopted the Japanese boy as his son and educated him. Capt. Whitefield helped John return to Japan. Being able to speak English, as well as being familiar with American affairs, after returning to Japan John played an important role in opening Japan’s doors to the West.

By Hikari Shimase

The greatest memory of mine in Hawaii is the gift of being understood given by the Iolani students in Hawaii. On December 13, the Shimane and Yamagata students did presentations on Japanese culture, including Lafcadio Hearn, Iwami kagura, and Japanese dialects. Although we practiced the presentations, we were nervous if our presentations would be understood or not because they would be our first presentations ever to American students in English.

We were very relieved when the Iolani students watched our presentations attentively, and they showed great interest by actively interacting with our speakers.

The Iolani students were so kind to us and sang everyone’s favorite Chirstmas song, “Last Christmas,” together both in English and in Japanese. The Japanese students were truly moved.

Talking with the Iolani students was so much fun. To our surprise, many Iolani students are Japanese Americans. Some of them said their grandparents were Japanese.

We felt we were “connected” when our presentations were understood and we exchanged our ideas. At the end of the cultural exchanges, we shared our SNS’s and promised to keep in touch online.

By Nanami Ishida, University of Shimane

A group of Japanese students from the University of Shimane and Yamagata University visited Pearl Harbor, the most significant place in Hawaii that changed the relationship between Japan and the United States.

After getting of a boat, the students landed on the USS Arizona Memorial. The white structure standing over the remains of the USS Arizona, the students observed the sunken dark ship underwater, but parts of the wreck were still seen over the water.

The Japanese students learned the history of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Although they knew the history from textbooks, visiting the site had them experience the horrors of the attack. It was painful to feel the tragedy of the crew trapped in the sunken ship in a few minutes. Hearing the story of the horrors, the students felt the wound of the crew and their family members directly. The fact the damage was caused by the Japanese broke the heart of the Japanese students.

The Japanese students also felt a pain of guilt. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked on Pearl Harbor and sank the American battleships including sailors on board under the water, causing the US to join World War II. As they learned the significance of the attack on Pearl Harbor in the world history, they thought that learning history was very important so as not to repeat the same mistake again.

By Chika Furusaki, University of Shimane

On December 11, 2018, Japanese students visited the Consulate-General of Japan in Honolulu, starting their short-term tour to strengthen the relationship between Japan and the United States.

They were 22 students from the University of Shimane and Yamagata University led by Professor Stephen Henneberry from Shimane and Professor Matthew Zisk from Yamagata.

They were invited to Hawaii by the Kakehashi Project, a program aiming for “building a bridge over” a river funded by the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE) in order to promote friendship between Japan and the United States.

Mr. Koichi Ito, Consul General, gave the young future leaders a warm welcome with tea and cookies in an elegant room of the modern consulate building, which was surrounded by big trees. Wearing an aloha shirt, Mr. Ito gently encouraged them to enjoy their stay in Hawaii and to make the best use of the opportunity.

A special lecture on the function of the Consulate, the history of Japanese in Hawaii, and Japanese cultural heritage in Hawaii was given to the students by Mr. Takayuki Shinozawa, Deputy Consul General.

According to Mr. Shinozawa, a consulate is established in a city which has strong ties with Japan, while an embassy is placed in the capital of a country. Honolulu in the State of Hawaii is a significant city where 13 % of the residents in Hawaii have Japanese ancestry. The first immigration of Japanese into Hawaii occurred in 1866 from Okinawa, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Niigata, Fukushima, etc. Therefore, a variety of Japanese culture is seen, such as branches of Izumo Grand Shrine from Shimane, Hongan Temple from Kyoto, bon dance festivals, and karate dojos.

The students asked many questions, and they learned about the interesting history of aloha shirts. To their surprise, aloha shirts were created from Japanese kimonos. Japanese immigrants remodeled kimonos into more comfortable work wear.  The loose and airy shirts, which are the current aloha shirts, are a result of Japanese creativity to suit the needs of workers in plantations in a hot climate.

After interesting exchanges of questions and comments, Miss Chika Furusaki expressed their gratitude for the invitation, representing the students of the University of Shimane, and confidently declared they would do their best to promote friendship between Japan and the United States to kick off the beginning of their week-long tour in Honolulu.