Yasuo “Zorro” Miyazawa
(17th SNIMC) — The leadership of the 17th Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council, Japan’s Seisa High School Principal Hajime Kaneko and Seisa Study Abroad Program Director Kuniko, in partnership with Seisa’s sister school Marianas High School Principal Jonathan Aguon and Vice Principal and Romolo Orsini, will honor the late Yasuo “Zorro” Miyazawa, the Saipan-Japan Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and founder of the Japan-Saipan Bridge of Peace and Goodwill and Participate & Learn Program.
The bridge program is a secondary study abroad platform for students of Japan and Saipan for nearly four decades since Miyazawa’s initial feasibility study tour of Saipan in 1984.
This week, a tribute to Miyazawa’s four-decade journey in cross cultural experiences will take place on Saipan, where the local council first bestowed Miyazawa an honorary title he aptly carried until his untimely passing on March 23, 2022.
In one of his published writings titled, “School to Turn Your Life Around,” Miyazawa said: “It is difficult to prove what cannot be done. [For] when you examine it thoroughly, you will find that it can be done and that nothing is 100% impossible. The gap between ‘I want to and I can’ is bigger than the Marianas Trench: if you decide that you can do it, you will have the strength to overcome the obstacles.”
Miyazawa’s philosophy of learning is reflected in the cultural traditions of Japan’s Kyosei and Saipan’s Inafa’maolek, a simple principle that teaches us to “understand each other, leave nobody out, and make friends,” as stated by Miyazawa himself.
Today, over 8,000 Bridge alumni on Saipan and Japan have participated in this legacy program, which has become an iconic event widely anticipated each year by Seisa students who visit Saipan as well as students from Marianas High School eager to meet their Japanese brothers and sisters and go on ski trips and experience other learning opportunities through Seisa’s Participate and Learn Program in Japan. The program was suspended during the Covid pandemic.
The Bridge program is one of humanity’s living treasures. It was passionately driven by a man who dedicated himself to humankind’s universal values of peace, goodwill and charity.
Miyazawa, a world traveler and an islander, too, continues to inspire many to believe and work for lasting peace and friendship between Japan and Saipan.
“Domo Aragato, Si Yuus Maase, Thank you Seisa Group, Seisa students, Seisa faculty, and Friends of Seisa. Si Yuus Maase, too, to PSS, Marianas High School and San Antonio School for living the dream of a lifetime relationship with our neighbors.”
