Global Classroom & Veterans’ Day Ikebana
Global Classroom — Where Language, Culture, and Humanity Meet
During the COVID pandemic, I was contacted by Peggy, an American woman who had lived in Japan 68 years earlier as a child.
Her father, a U.S. officer, had rescued Japanese civilians during severe postwar floods without waiting for orders. Peggy hoped to express gratitude to the Japanese woman who had cared for her family.
I proposed we try to find her.
Through Facebook, newspaper reporters, local citizens, and community groups, people came together.
Global Classroom began with a single story of postwar connection
and grew into ongoing cross-cultural learning and friendship.
Through language, culture, and shared experiences,
participants discover that friendship itself is a step toward peace.
グローバル・クラスルームは、
戦後の一つの出会いの物語から始まり、
言語や文化、体験を通して続いていく交流の場へと広がりました。この交流会の参加者が築く友情は平和への一歩になります。
Connecting People Through Language, Culture, and Shared Humanity
This Global Classroom began during the COVID-19 pandemic,
with a single encounter and a simple question:
Can stories, language, and cultural experiences help people reconnect across borders?
この問いが、やがて言語・文化・世代を越える継続的な交流へと育っていきました。
🌱 The Beginning — A Story That Crossed Time
This experience became the seed of what later grew into Global Classroom.
It also helped me recognize a new and meaningful possibility in my work as a Japanese Culture Consultant.
I began organizing several online events on my own.
They were meaningful, but I felt something was still missing.
The Global Classroom began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021,
with a single story shared online.
It started with a paper-theater (Kamishibai) Japan–U.S. exchange event,
where I met Peggy, an American woman who had lived in Japan 68 years earlier
as a child on Ashiya Air Base in Fukuoka (1953–1954).
During the COVID pandemic, I was contacted by Peggy, an American woman who had lived in Japan 68 years earlier as a child.
Her father, a U.S. officer, had rescued Japanese civilians during severe postwar floods without waiting for orders. Peggy hoped to express gratitude to the Japanese woman who had cared for her family.
I suggested that we try to find Setsuko.
I was deeply moved by how the simple kindness of Captain McDowell and Setsuko connected two countries, and I felt their story should be known.
Through Facebook, newspaper reporters, local citizens, and community groups, people began to come together.
Through these connections, an online exchange was organized featuring a Japanese kamishibai storytelling group who had been preserving local flood history. Women who had actually been rescued as children joined the event, as well as students and adults from both countries.
This moment revealed something powerful:
Online space can hold memory, gratitude, and human connection across generations.
This experience became the seed of what later grew into Global Classroom.
It also helped me recognize a new and meaningful possibility in my work as a Japanese Culture Consultant.
I began organizing several online events on my own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3wmE9AZ1I&t=16s
They were meaningful, but I felt something was still missing.
Cool Kids Across the Pacific to Global Classroom-Learning Through Repeated Encounters
From this experience, the idea of continuous exchange began to shape.
Then, an unexpected connection changed everything.
Akari Waseguri discovered my post on an English education Facebook group and reached out.
We had no mutual connections and had never met before,
but we shared the same vision —
that language becomes meaningful when it connects real people.
We began shaping a more continuous and collaborative form of exchange.
Rather than meeting only once,
students met again and again —
online, across time zones, sharing stories, culture, and everyday life.
Together with partners in Japan and the U.S.,
we launched Cool Kids Across the Pacific,
a recurring online exchange program for middle and high school students.
By meeting multiple times,
participants began to build real friendships —
not just language practice,
but human connection.
From this foundation,
the program naturally grew into what is now known as the Tomodachi Summit (2023—)
an evolving educational initiative where participants meet repeatedly, collaborate, and present as
“ Each person is a diplomat.”
Each year, the program expands —
connecting students, adults, partner organizations, supported by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and Consulate General of U.S. Osaka, eventually leading to in-person peace learning experiences in Hiroshima.
What began as one online exchange
has become a growing bridge between cultures,
where language, friendship, and shared experiences
create understanding that goes beyond words.
Veterans’ Day Ikebana — Honoring Service Through Culture
Veterans’ Day Ikebana became a turning point where language exchange expanded into cultural memory, intergenerational connection, and non-verbal dialogue through art.
Global Classroom also expanded beyond language.
In 2023, we held a Veterans’ Day Ikebana event,
bringing together Japanese and American students, adults, and veterans’ families.
Participants learned about:
Peggy’s father, a U.S. officer who rescued Japanese civilians during floods
Ikebana International and cultural diplomacy
how flowers can communicate respect and gratitude
Each participant prepared flowers and created an arrangement together online.
Veterans were recognized not only for their service,
but as cultural ambassadors who carry experiences across borders.
Here, language, art, history, gratitude, and peace met in one shared space.
This event showed that:
Flowers can connect people and convey heartfelt feelings — even online.
Flowers create dialogue beyond words.
This event was supported by the Consulate-General of Japan in Houston.
What Global Classroom Represents Today
Global Classroom is not a one-time event or single program,
It is a living space where
language becomes human connection
culture becomes shared experience
art becomes dialogue
history becomes understanding
repeated meetings become friendship
friendship becomes a step toward peace
Anyone can join.
Anywhere can become a meeting place.
Every participant becomes part of the bridge.
By meeting more than once,
participants stop being strangers
and begin becoming friends.
Friendship is the first step toward peace.
Global Classroom は、
一度きりではなく、何度も会うことで生まれる
「本当の国際交流」を大切にしています。
言語を使う勇気、
相手を知ろうとする姿勢、
そして友達になる経験。
それらすべてが、平和づくりの一歩だと考えています。 o