In Full Bloom

When National Geographic listed 花季传媒 as one of the best places to see cherry blossoms in the U.S., no one on the Athens Campus was surprised. After all, the annual April bloom makes an already-beautiful campus pop like no other time. The fleeting beauty of the cherry (sakura) trees鈥攁 gift from Chubu University in Japan鈥攂elies the lasting relationship between the two institutions, celebrating 50 years in 2023. And the relationship has recently survived perhaps its biggest challenge yet, a global pandemic that shut down in-person exchanges鈥攖he heart of the OHIO-Chubu partnership鈥攆or two full years. 

Case in point: Dr. Yeong-Hyun Kim, associate professor of geography, was supposed to be OHIO鈥檚 Miura Visiting Professor at Chubu in 2020. The visiting professor program is what established the relationship between Athens and Kasugai, Japan, in 1973. Her plan was to research the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were themselves postponed due to COVID-19. Kim pivoted and went to Chubu in 2022 and instead studied the city of Sapporo, Japan鈥檚 bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics and what that means financially and psychologically for the host country.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a good place to go for any 花季传媒 professor,鈥� Kim recalled after returning to Athens. 鈥淭here is plenty of similarity between Ohio and Aichi where Kasugai is located. Aichi is a prefecture with a strong manufacturing base, and Toyota is headquartered there. It is the Japanese equivalent of the U.S. Midwest.鈥�

Kim鈥檚 host professor was the head of Chubu鈥檚 GIS Center (geographic information systems). Kim would now like to pursue GIS research collaboration between Chubu and OHIO鈥檚 Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service. Last summer, two Chubu students audited one of Kim鈥檚 courses online. While there, Kim reconnected with a former OHIO student who now works at Chubu鈥檚 Center for International Affairs. In addition, under Kim鈥檚 supervision, Misa Mukaigawa, a former Chubu student and a Charles J. Ping Graduate Fellow in OHIO鈥檚 International Development Studies, successfully completed her master鈥檚 project this winter. This constant expansion of relationships between OHIO and Chubu is a common theme.

In a sense, the institutions鈥� shared vision of international understanding, friendship and scholarship was borne out of the horrors of war. The late Dr. Tomoyasu Tanaka is considered the father of the OHIO-Chubu partnership; he and his Chubu colleague Hiroshi Katsumori were the driving force behind the Miura Visiting Professors program. Tanaka鈥檚 daughter, Norico Tanaka-Wada, referred to her father鈥檚 memoirs in which he described witnessing the atomic bomb attack of Hiroshima in 1945. 鈥淚 pray deeply that never again will such a tragedy happen again on this earth,鈥� he wrote.

To that end, Tanaka was a stalwart supporter of the OHIO-Chubu partnership. Starting in 1984, he split his time between OHIO and Chubu, where he became the first director of Chubu鈥檚 Center for International Affairs. As remarkable as Tanaka鈥檚 commitment was, the OHIO-Chubu relationship continued to thrive after his retirement (he died in 2014). 

鈥淎 lot of times you鈥檒l have a relationship between two schools driven by one person 鈥� and when that person is not around anymore that really falls apart,鈥� said Dr. Gerry Krzic, director of the Ohio Program of Intensive English (OPIE). 鈥淭his one has endured.鈥�

Not only has it endured, it has grown. In 1977, Chubu started sending students to Athens to study English. In 1994, Chubu students began studying for an entire term in the OPIE program. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, over 100 Chubu students studied at OHIO in 2022. 

On a chilly night last fall, Chubu exchange student Hina Uchida sat at a table in Jefferson Hall for OPIE鈥檚 International Conversation hour. She was all smiles, in a good mood because her persuasive speech in her COMS class of both American and Japanese students went well. (Her argument: Professors should assign homework that relates to students鈥� lives.)

鈥淚 was nervous, but I enjoyed my speech and I was comfortable more than before, (on) the first day. So I鈥檓 proud of my English,鈥� she said.

Before conversation hour wrapped up, Krzic played emcee for trivia. After fielding some laughter-inducing answers to American trivia questions, Krzic asked the American students in the crowd of about 100, 鈥淎re you happy that Chubu students are here?鈥� The answer was a resounding yes. 鈥淐hubu students, are you glad you came?鈥� Another resounding yes. Finally, 鈥淚n person or Zoom?鈥� The question, of course, was rhetorical. 鈥淚n person!鈥�

The personal touch begins in the classroom and then extends beyond, both in the U.S. and Japan. American students have been studying Japanese at Chubu since 1993. Dr. Chris Thompson, who teaches Japanese and is on the Chubu University Relations Committee, has served as OHIO鈥檚 Japan study abroad coordinator since 1998 and was a Miura visiting professor in 2019. Born and raised in Japan, Thompson has long studied Japan as an ethnographer. 

While Chubu is located in central Japan (鈥渃hubu鈥� means 鈥渃entral鈥� in Japanese), Thompson鈥檚 area of expertise is northeast Japan, where Iwate Prefecture is located鈥攖he region that was devastated by a tsunami in 2011. So when the tsunami hit, Thompson was positioned to quickly rally both Japanese and American students to help with tsunami cleanup. OHIO alumni donated funds to pay transportation and lodging costs for students already in Japan to travel to Iwate.

The tsunami cleanup was classic service learning whereby OHIO students gained academic skills (Japanese language and culture) while helping meet a community need. It began with cleanup and by year two included 鈥渨ater volunteerism,鈥� where volunteers took bottled water and green tea to people displaced from their homes, first to emergency shelters and then to temporary housing. But once the residents returned to permanent housing, something interesting happened.

鈥淓ven when the water was hooked up, the families still asked to have water,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淭he water delivery became a form of contact 鈥� They remembered us. And some of the 花季传媒 students were getting better and better at Japanese.鈥�

Thompson has continued to lead a service-learning project in Iwate every September, excluding 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic. Now he is expanding service learning elsewhere, including near Chubu, under the U.S.-Japan Global Engagement Project.

In short, the OHIO-Chubu partnership has weathered a global pandemic and is emerging as strong as ever, ready for the next 50 years. 鈥淲hat I think we learned from COVID is that technology is fine,鈥� said OPIE鈥檚 Krzic. 鈥淚t鈥檚 enhanced some things, but we鈥檝e really realized the value of this in-person connection. Nothing beats that for education.鈥�

Feature image by Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC '01

Ohio-Chubu Partnership: A Timeline