Japanese trainees return to BBCC 46 years later

MOSES LAKE - Eighteen graduates of an exchange program that places Japanese students on American farms returned to Big Bend Community College to help the college celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The men were part of Group C, who came to the United States in 1968 as part of the Japanese Agriculture Training Program (JATP). The program matches Japanese agriculture students with farmers and farms throughout the United States.

Moses Lake and the college have changed a lot since 1968, but Takeru Tochihara said it still smelled the same. "It smells like blue sky, green grass, wide open fields and the heart of our American hometown," he said.

The graduates rented a bus to tour the Moses Lake area; they attended classes at BBCC before scattering to farms throughout the country for training.

Many of the graduates are still farming in Japan. Others are involved in business and politics, according to a press release from the college.

The veteran farmers grow asparagus, cut flowers, rice and vegetables, and one program alum grows garlic on his 100-acre farm, which is a huge farm in Japan. Tsuneyuki Honma was interested in viniculture and studied for two years in Germany after leaving the JATP program. Currently he is senior managing director for Hokkaido Wine, one of the largest in Japan. Hirao Ishii is an assembly member at Saitama Prefecture, and Kenichi Matsumoto is a building contractor.

"Our time in the U.S. became the core of our life and helped us grow into who we are today," Tochihara said.

The graduates donated $2,250 to the college foundation, which will be matched through a grant.

"There is not another school in this great land that has come this far with generations of trainees from Japan. It is an extremely rare relationship," Tochihara said. Graduates have grandchildren that are older than some of the current trainees, he said.