Nagasaki senior trip provides valuable cultural experience for seniors

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The senior trip to Nagasaki has been a treasured tradition for many graduates of CAJ. The trip teaches valuable lessons on the history of Japan, specifically related to the atomic bomb as well as Christianity in Japan. But there was an extended period of time where students didn’t get to experience Nagasaki.

After the 2011 tsunami in the Tohoku region, CAJ decided to send its seniors to aid in relief efforts. Japanese culture and Japanese language teacher Morris Yaegashi (‘98) said those trips were very meaningful and effective, but he noticed that it was time for a change after several years.

“Slowly, the manual labor that students could actually go out and do became less and less,” said Yaegashi. “We had to start spreading the class out in several groups to go [work on different projects], and it was difficult for us to arrange everything. It felt like our work there was done.”

Former high school principal Damon Ealey talked to Yaegashi about returning the senior trip to Nagasaki, and the trip has been happening every October since the fall of 2018, aside from a couple of COVID years.

On the trip, seniors get to experience key landmarks such as the Nishizaka 26 Martyrs Museum, the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Dejima, the Oura Church, and the Glover Garden. This supplements the learning they experience in CAJ’s compulsory Japanese culture class.

“It just made sense that we were sending off our seniors for a final dose of learning about Christianity in Japan and Japanese culture,” Yaegashi said.

In Nagasaki, the seniors walk from landmark to landmark, enjoying precious time with classmates between the various sites they see. But the main part of the experience, Yaegashi says, is feeling more of a connection to Japan by learning about the harsh realities of religious persecution, and later, the atomic bomb.

“We want students to be in the very places where everything happened,” Yaegashi. “Hopefully, they’re getting the shock of realizing, ‘this actually happened?’”

Yaegashi says one main highlight of the trip is watching students get caught in the moment of looking at a powerful painting or picture in the museums.

“We aren’t necessarily doing much in terms of service, “Yaegashi said. “But we’re going there with the mindset of learning and being with the local people instead of learning from afar.”