ブックタイトルa-history-of-international-exchanges00

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a-history-of-international-exchanges00

ReminiscencesGuy ButterworthHonorable Doctor of University of MiyazakiRecently, I read a memoir by the writer Michael Korda. He wrote abouthis experiences as an elementary school child in England from a wellconnectedfamily in the first year or so of the Second World War. Now, ofcourse, he is in his eighties and has this to say about memory: “Memory is notan exact instrument. As we grow older, we tend to impose the present on thepast, or to remember what we wish had happened rather than what actuallydid.” And so it is with me, though my memories of my life in Japan, mostimportantly Miyazaki and Miyadai, are not be as far in the past as his ofwartime England.The one thing that continues to resonate with me as indisputable sixteenyears after my reluctant departure from Japan is my feeling that the evenworst of my days there turned out to be, in retrospect, some of the best timesof my life. Although, to my chagrin, I never became fluent in Japanese andrealized that that served often to isolate me more than merely linguistically,I will always remain grateful to my friends, colleagues, and most of thegeneral public in their forbearance not only with my “henna Nihongo” but alsowith my frequent culturally inappropriate behavior, which I doubt no numberof Fourth of July celebrations or Christmas parties could ever entirely excuseor eliminate. I think of Japan, Miyazaki, and Miyadai often. I dream of itduring the small hours of my sleep. I will always admire much of what I didlearn about the Japanese manner of dealing with the complexities oflife. And I will regret what I did not learn, and what I did not performsatisfactorily to merit the good treatment I received.The Miyadai Sister School relationships certainly represents at least someof that. When the first Miyadai students went away for a year abroad, Ifound in Mr Takasu a willing colleague in finding a way to use some of thebenefits that the Japanese government gave me to assist Miyadai students infinancing life in a foreign country. The amounts did not add up to a greatdeal, and they were to be given anonymously (an idea that did not survive somany years), but they served a purpose not only for the few students thatused them and then later repaid them but also for my desire to encourage