UT Students Experience Japanese Culture and Foreign Policy on Japan Ambassadors Trip
This summer 12 University of Tennessee, Knoxville, students followed in the footsteps of former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard H. Baker Jr. for the Japan Ambassadors trip. Based in Kobe and Tokyo, the immersive experience is designed to provide students with a unique view of U.S.-Japan relations and Japan’s cultural history. It is presented by Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs (Baker School) with Professor and Director of the Center for National Security and Foreign Affairs Krista Wiegand leading the trip.
This year’s program included many trips to museums, temples, and shrines that provided a unique overview of Japanese culture. Interspersed between those trips were days spent at three universities, where they interacted with Japanese students and heard from local professors about U.S.–Japan relations.
The students began their trip at their home base in Kobe, where they visited one of the oldest shrines in the country, the Ikuta Jinja Shrine. Japan has estimated over 80,000 shrines, sacred places that house the remains or relics of a holy figure, often visited for special devotions. The Ikuta Jinja Shrine is dedicated to the goddess Wakahirume and was founded by Empress Jingu when returning from the Three Han Campaign. That afternoon, students spent time at the Meriken Park earthquake memorial, a stretch of the Meriken wharf quay wall preserved to show the damage by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995. That earthquake claimed 6,434 lives, most from Kobe.
On day two, the group met with students and faculty at the Faculty of Intercultural Studies and Faculty of Law at Kobe University. Along with the Japanese students, classes were held on cultural aspects of Japan, Japanese political history, and U.S.-Japan relations with Dr. Wiegand, along with Dr. Hirotaka Inoue and Dr. Tosh Minohara, professors at Kobe University.
Ethan Curl, a Master of Public Policy and Public Affairs student at the Baker School, found that the program provided him with an outside perspective on international and domestic politics. “No matter how many classes you take, the experience of talking with Japanese students about how they view the U.S. and our alliance is far more impactful,” he said.
To travel to each location, the group used the most popular mode of transportation in Japan, the train system, traveling on the local or bullet trains and having time at the rail stations to explore. That in itself added to the experience. “I enjoyed the subtle differences between our cultures the most, such as having to make sure I had coins to pay with, taking trains everywhere, and learning to be comfortable as an international traveler,” Curl said.
On their third day in Kobe, they experienced the city of Kyoto through a bus tour, visiting the Kinkakuji Temple, one of the most famous Buddhist temples, with its spectacular architecture that shows the culture and design of the religion. They walked the Sannen-zaka and Ninnen-zaka, stone-paved pedestrian roads lined with traditional buildings and shops. Finishing off the day at the Shoren Temple, one of the Monzeki temples and one where the head priests originally belonged to the imperial family.
Throughout the trip, students were given free time to explore locations independently if they chose to. “Always say yes, responsibly,” said McKenzie Nguyen, a sophomore majoring in Public Health with a minor in Public Affairs. “We always said yes to fun foods, clothing, and experiences. Why be reserved when the entire purpose is to learn?”
Nguyen recommends taking advantage of the experience even before getting there, learning about the culture and customs beforehand, learning a few phrases, and understanding the mannerisms. On the trip, she had opportunities to communicate with the locals in her broken elementary Japanese. She wanted to step outside her comfort zone and try to communicate in their language as a foreigner, something she said added to her experience.
The most impactful day came when they visited Miyajima Island and Hiroshima. They first took a ferry to Miyajima Island, where they saw the Itsukushima shrine, known for its torii gate standing in water on the outskirts of the shrine.
Back on the mainland, they took the local train to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. With heavy hearts, the students began at the Flame of Peace, a flame that has been burning since August 1, 1964, as a symbol never to die out until the day nuclear weapons disappear from Earth. Walking through the museum took its toll on the group. “All of us felt like every step we took, looking at all the pictures and descriptions, felt like we had spent a lifetime of looking at the victims’ suffering,” stated Nguyen.
For Nguyen, the sheer amount of grief she felt had her rushing through, others telling her afterward that there was hope at the end of the exhibit, but for her, as a 19-year-old, looking at the images of war’s outcome sickened her. She wasn’t the only one, finding one of her groupmates was impacted the same, sharing their grief. Curl also noted the impact of the visit. “Going to Hiroshima as Americans impacted us all a lot and helped us all truly gauge the human cost of war and the use of nuclear weapons.” The visit brought the group together, allowing them to experience and feel the weight of that action as one.
Nguyen made an interesting comparison to the visits of that day: starting out at the fun beachy island of Miyajima, running around the island for souvenirs to take home, and then standing in front of a memorial that represented the end of so many lives in an unimaginable way.
Halfway through the trip, they moved to their second home base of Tokyo. On their first day there, they visited the Tokyo National Museum, considered the oldest national museum in Japan and operated by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage.
At Sophia University, the oldest Catholic university in Tokyo, students attended a Japanese national security issue panel by the Research Institute for Peace and Security. They also had the opportunity to meet with Yumi Mitamura, the director of business development in Japan, for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. And no UT trip to Japan is complete without a visit to the Good Ole Tennessee Bar, owned by Tokyo native and UT alum Yoshitoshi Momoki.
At Gakushuin University, students participated in a class with Japanese students on U.S.-Japan relations, led by Dr. Takako Hikotani, before meeting with the Political and Military Affairs and Economic Affairs sections at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
While in Japan’s capital, they were able to experience Ginza, the city’s most glamorous shopping district, during their free time. On a day bus tour, they visited the Meiji Jingu Shrine, Yushukan Military and War Museum, and the Imperial Palace. Students got a sky-high view of the city at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Observation Tower and finished off with shopping at the Akihabara “electric town” shopping district.
“It’s only 11 days, but you get so much more out of it that you wouldn’t be able to plan and organize without Dr. Wiegand,” states Curl. “I don’t think I would have ever gone to Japan by myself but being in a group of UT students equally lost made for what was genuinely the best trip of my life.”
The Japan Ambassadors trip is open to students from all academic programs. Next year’s program will provide students with an opportunity for students to gain global experience and credit for a course, Japan and U.S.-Japanese Relations, as a short-term, 16-day Programs Abroad program held in May mini term, 2025.
“I initially applied to the program because I was interested in the sanitary practices and the transit of Japan,” says Nguyen on the program. “As a Public Health major, I’ve always been aware of the Asian custom of “masking up” whenever someone feels under the weather or sick. But to think about how condensed the Japanese population is within their small island country – it amazed me how people can stay healthy and encourage a good lifestyle when everyone is so tightly packed into subway cars or buses.”