Nine Pomona students in the Trans-Pacific Japan: Love & Money course this semester didn’t just learn about Japanese economy, culture and diaspora in the classroom.
Rather, they, along with five other students from The Claremont Colleges, traveled to Japan for a week and in turn welcomed Japanese students to Claremont as part of the Tomodachi Inouye Scholars Program (TISP), a “friendship tie” program sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs that promotes deeper mutual understanding among the people of Japan and the United States.
For Sophie Bambara ’27, this class was her first Asian American studies course, and the trip was her first time traveling to a country other than Togo and Burkina Faso—West African countries where her parents are from.
Japanese culture “is a completely different culture than mine,” says Bambara. “My takeaway is to be comfortable with the uncomfortable and unknown.”
Professor of Psychological Science and Asian American Studies Sharon Goto led the trip with Linus Yamane, professor of economics and Asian American studies at Pitzer College. Together, they have also been co-teaching the Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies course.
The itinerary began with a homestay with Japanese families in the seaside village of Minamisanriku. Goto says this was one of the most impactful parts of the trip as students were able to “see Japanese families in their home settings and share meals with them and experience their hospitality.”
When she left the homestay, Camila Amaya Navarrete ’27 says she had tears in her eyes, having bonded with her host family as the parents welcomed her into their home and shared with her photos and artifacts from their lives.
At the same time, the whole group was able to witness the “community resilience” of an area devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Goto says. With the opportunity to learn about the construction of a new seawall, the students saw how the people of the town “worked together toward solutions to problems which originally seemed intractable,” says Goto.
“It was really admirable to see how community members came together after the tsunami for mutual aid,” says Amaya Navarrete. “If I hadn’t done this trip, I wouldn’t have expanded my knowledge on the tsunami, the resilience of the community afterwards and how we can learn from Japan: listening to constituents and the people on the ground to make these changes.”
Following the homestay, the group traveled to Tokyo to meet with Japan’s parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs. The students asked questions about the political empowerment of women and minorities and sought advice for younger generations aspiring to work in politics.
They rounded out their trip at Sophia University, interacting with Japanese students who would later visit Claremont. In addition to showing the group around the campus, the Sophia students accompanied them through the area of Shibuya in Tokyo.
“In Claremont we tend to be insular, and I realized that there are other college students making a really big impact on the world,” says Amaya Navarrete.
The Claremont students returned the favor a week later, when the Sophia University students came to Claremont and toured the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, attended classes and ate lunch in Frary Dining Hall.
Amaya Navarrete, who works as an education outreach intern at the Benton Museum, appreciated the opportunity to show the Japanese students a Native American exhibit.
“It was important for them to see the Native American impact and how we value and honor and work with Native American audiences,” says Amaya Navarrete. “They were engaging with the history for the first time.”
Reflecting on the entire experience, Amaya Navarrete says, “We did a lot. We played every single role that we could have. We were students. We were daughters and sons. We were parliamentary people. We did a little bit of everything.”