When a devastating earthquake stuck Japan last year, Glenbrook South High School’s student exchange with an overseas high school was scaled back.
Japanese students arrived at Glenbrook South in March as planned, but the Glenview teens did not make the journey abroad, which would have been the first such trip in the program’s history. Organizers thought the excursion risky after a nuclear power plant was damaged during the disaster, causing a panic over radiation levels.
But this year, the exchange program appears to be back on its feet now that Glenbrook High School District 225 Board of Education approved the program Monday. The only thing needed to get the trip off the ground is participation from Glenbrook South students.
“It depends on how many students want to go,” said Yasuko Makita-Discekici, who teaches Japanese language at Glenbrook South and has coordinated the exchange. “It’s still not 100 percent.”
Six students must come forward for the trip to take place in the summer, Makita-Discekici said. So far, a few students have expressed interest. Some of the students who had planned on going to Japan last year graduated, leaving organizers to find others this year, she said.
Last March, a group of students from Kokusai Joho High School in Niigata, Japan, came to Glenview and become immersed in American culture. They lived with local host families, attended classes at Glenbrook South and visited attractions in the Chicago area.
Their visit was shortly after an earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck near the city of Sendai. Along with numerous casualties, the disasters significantly damaged the area’s infrastructure.
The attention of Japan and the rest of the world turned to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Damage to the plant caused reactors to melt down and radiation to contaminate the surrounding area.
Although Kokusai Joho High School was 135 miles from the quake’s epicenter, the coordinators of the student exchange put safety first and called off the Glenbrook South trip.
Months after the earthquake, Makita-Discekici traveled to Tokyo to visit family and noted the progress. An official at the high school in Japan confirmed the radiation levels had subsided and travel to the country should be OK, Makita-Discekici said.
“I don’t see any concern going there (now),” she said.
She said in November, students from Evanston Township High School visited the same high school in Japan as part of an exchange program.
Students from Kokusai Joho High School are scheduled to visit Glenbrook South again in March, but if Glenbrook students go to Japan, the trip would not be until summer break in June.
Like their Japanese peers, the American students would stay with host families and spend time at the high school, Makita-Discekici said. They also would have opportunities to see the country’s sights, including the Peace Memorial Museum Park in Hiroshima and ancient Kyoto. The students would visit Tokyo, as well, and tour Mitsubishi Motors in Marunouchi.
Although the trip, which is sponsored by the school district but funded by the travelers, is primarily educational, there would still be plenty opportunities for relaxation, Makita-Discekici said.
