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Takuo Hashizume, one of the first JATP trainees, shows his passport and U.S. draft card from his time studying with the program in 1966.

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Field study
July 31, 2026 3 a.m.

Field study

Japanese Agricultural Training Program celebrates 60 years at BBCC

MOSES LAKE — Six decades of agricultural collaboration between the Columbia Basin and Japan were celebrated Monday evening at Big Bend Community College. “Over the years, hundreds of participants have come to our region to learn, to work, and share their talents,” Big Bend Community College President Sara Thompson Tweedy said at the commemoration Monday. “And in doing so, you have enriched our college, strengthened our agricultural community, and created lifelong relationships that continue to span the Pacific Ocean.”