On Friday, December 8, 2023, faculty, students, families, and staff gathered in the first-floor seminar room at 5 Bryant Street, to celebrate and congratulate the 2023 Tazuko Ajiro Monane and Noma-Reischauer Prize winners. Co-sponsored by the Japanese Language Program and the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the ceremony honored the achievements of four Harvard students in the Japanese studies arena.
Prof. Wesley Jacobsen, Director of the Japanese language program, began with an appreciation of Tazuko Ajiro Monane, his predecessor, whose untimely death from cancer had robbed the department of a beloved faculty member in 1991. "Her legacy is one that we still remember today," Prof. Jacobsen said, "She was a model of teaching, both in terms of classroom technique, and in terms of her connection with students." Noting that Monane was known to take students home and bake cookies with them, Prof. Jacobsen expressed that she had "set a model for what we feel language education should be about." Prof. Jacobsen described how the Monane award was created in her honor when she died, making this year's the 31st ceremony. The Tazuko Ajiro Monane Award itself is one given to one or two students each year who show promise in their Japanese studies due to their diligent work and successful achievements in Japanese studies both inside the classroom and out. Prof. Jacobsen announced the names of this year's winners, Larissa Barth and Noah Brune, and then called up Preceptor in Japanese Naomi Asakura to give remarks about the first recipient.
Asakura-sensei described Larissa Barth, a Comparative Literature student who had taken her Intermediate Japanese course and who is currently taking her Advanced Japanese course, as perfectly suited for the Monane award. She praised Larissa's passion and interest in Japanese and her motivation to go to Japan as an intern despite the obstacles presented by COVID-19. "Don't get me wrong, she was a really great student when I met her," Asakura-sensei said, to the laughter of the audience, "But this semester she became an even greater student, so I think she had a really great experience there." She described Larissa's work comparing the works of Haruki Murakami and Herman Hesse, and how this is leading her to join the KCJF in Kyoto next semester. "Barth-san, you have shown us your hard work and your wonderful achievements have been truly inspiring for all of us. Congratulations again on this accomplishment, I can't wait to see you continue to grow."
At that, Prof. Jacobsen called up Larissa to receive her certificate and congratulations, and to give her own comments in both English and Japanese. Larissa expressed that she was deeply honored to be recognized by this award, and that studying Japanese has been an extremely rewarding journey for her ever since, as an 8 year old living in Germany, she discovered Japanese culture through the movie Spirited Away. She described how each of the sensei she had at Harvard contributed to her development in learning Japanese and to her interest in studying Buddhism. Thanks to her great experiences in learning and in applying her knowledge in Japan, she expressed that she expects to be studying Japan and Japanese for as long as she lives.
Prof. Jacobsen then called up Japanese Preceptor Mihoko Yagi to introduce the other Tazuko Ajiro Monane recipient, Noah Brune.
Yagi-sensei introduced Noah, a fourth-year student of Applied Mathematics, as a student whose reputation preceded him into her third-year Japanese class. "[Noah] has been contributing to class not only as a role model of a successful learner of Japanese language, but also as an exemplary senpai college student with his hard work, maturity, and respect for others." She noted how impressed she was that on top of being on time with every assignment and fully prepared for every class, Noah also manages swim practice as an athlete and stays on top of all of his activities while still coming to office hours every week to practice speaking Japanese. "He is one of the most hardworking and organized students I have ever taught." Yagi-sensei turned to Noah to say, "It has been our great pleasure to have a student like you. We are so glad to recognize your achievement in the form of this prize. I hope you will continue to pursue your interest and use Japanese to contribute to the world as well as achieve your dearest personal goals."
Prof. Jacobsen then called up Noah to shake his hand, give him his certificate, and invite him to speak as well. Noah thanked the department and congratulated the other award recipients, and named each of his sensei and thanked them for turning Japanese into "not just another class", but a subject that was special to him in a way that other subjects are not. He described his experiences with visiting his Japanese grandparents in early life, saying that these early memories brought him both joy, and a sense of how disconnected from his heritage he was in danger of becoming. "I wish I could talk to them in Japanese and tell them the story of how I gained a new passion for the language at my dream school of Harvard." He thanked his professors for helping him to regain his Japanese identity and re-connect with the Japanese side of his family and expressed his desire to continue to deepen his knowledge of Japanese language and culture, both to connect with his heritage and to apply it to other areas of knowledge and opportunities.
Prof. Jacobsen then handed the floor to Professor Shigehisa Kuriyama, Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, for the Noma-Reischauer Prize presentation. Prof. Kuriyama thanked Prof. Jacobsen as well as the representative of the Japanese Consulate, as well as the Noma-Reischauer Committee members, including Dr. Gavin Whitelaw, the Reischauer Institute's Executive Director, who had helped with selecting the winners. The Noma-Reischauer Prize, given this year for the 28th time, recognizes the best essays on Japan-related topics written by both graduate and undergraduate Harvard students. Prof. Kuriyama announced the first recipient, the graduate student winner, as Dr. John Kanbayashi, who graduated last year with a Ph.D. in History under the guidance of Professor Ian Miller, and who is currently an assistant professor of history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the intertwined history of science, technology and environment in modern Japan and Taiwan. Dr. Kanbayashi’s paper, titled "Down from the Mountains: Water, Rice, Disposition and Disease, 1920-1936" is a chapter from his dissertation and is a meticulous study of the impact of Japanese colonial environmental policy on indigenous mountain communities in rural Taiwan. Prof. Kuriyama described it as "a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship examining the entanglements of colonialism and environment in the context of East Asia,” and said that it “provides a nuanced perspective on Japan's colonial engagement in Taiwan, challenging common narratives." After Prof. Kuriyama presented John with his prize, John was invited to give remarks.
Dr. John Kanbayashi expressed his thanks and sense of gratitude to a long list of faculty, staff, friends, and his partner, Sarah Tang, who is also a former Noma-Reischauer awardee. He followed this up, making the audience laugh, with an anecdote about meeting with Prof. Jacobsen as a curious "random highschooler from Illinois who emailed out of the blue" who went on to be rejected from Harvard College but maintained his admiration for "the vitality of both Japanese studies and Japanese language education" at Harvard, which made him want to join the program as a graduate student. About his broader dissertation, John mentioned that the question he asks is, "What does it mean to really understand the Japanese empire in environmental terms?" John finished his remarks with gratitude for everyone who had supported him and his research, starting in high school and continuing through his graduate school career.
Finally, Prof. Kuriyama introduced the recipient of the Undergraduate Noma-Reischauer Prize, Maya Simkowitz, who graduated last May with a degree in the History of Art and Architecture, with her senior thesis combining these disciplines with Japanese language and culture under the advisement of EALC Professor Melissa McCormick. Simkowitz, who now works at Blackstone in New York City as a real estate analyst, wrote her winning paper, “Pika-don: Memorializing the Body Through the Lens of Post-War Japanese Photography” as her senior thesis. Kuriyama describes the paper as "A well-written and insightful exploration of photography as an artistic medium of memorialization and reflection…[about]… using the visual medium as a language to reflect on the impact of the atomic bomb's legacies in cultural memory, as well as a means for grappling with the more intimate impacts of the bombings on personal identities and experiences."
Maya expressed how much she resonated with the speeches of the other awardees, in particular Noah, as she also comes from a half-Japanese background, and finds that her cultural heritage deeply impacts the way she has navigated her academic journey. She extended thanks to everyone involved in it, especially the RIJS staff and faculty for their research support, and Prof. McCormick for her advising. Maya explains that her thesis title, "Pika-don", translates to "flash-boom", "the phrase that was used by atomic bomb survivors to convey the stunning immensity of the light and sonic boom caused by the atomic bomb in the moments before devastation overcame Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Her thesis, focusing on four contemporary photographers of Japanese descent whose identities and lives intersected with World War II and the atomic bomb, investigates how gender and the human body are depicted in their works. Maya referenced her Japanese grandparents' experiences and complex memories of post-war Japan as inspirations for her fascination with the legacy of the bomb and the war at large.
Concluding the formal ceremony, Prof. Jacobsen invited all participants to stay for the food and festivities, expressing EALC's delight to have all of the visiting attendees, and thanks to the staff at EALC and Reischauer Institute who made the ceremony possible.