MONTHLY NEWS
March 1999

Yokohama School Kids Become Pen Pals with Bosnian Students

Over 140 letters have been received from children in the civil-war-devastated country of Bosnia and Herzegovina by sixth graders at Miyagaya Elementary School in Yokohama in response to letters written by Japanese children last year.

The letters asking Bosnian kids to become pen pals were written about a year ago by 111 fifth graders and translated into English by middle school students at neighboring Karuizawa Middle School.

The students introduced themselves in their letters and waited for a reply. The messages were written at the suggestion of Masayo Ichikawa, a graduate of the school who worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997 as a volunteer.

Ichikawa met an elementary school teacher there who asked her to help her students correspond with their Japanese counterparts. "We have to rebuild our country," the school teacher told Ichikawa, "just like Japan did after World War II, and I so want our students to develop ties with schoolchildren in Japan."

The 140 letters from Bosnia were written by kids aged between 9 and 14. They were translated into Japanese by Karuizawa Middle School students and delivered to the Japanese children, who are now in sixth grade.

One of the letters from Bosnia read, "I'm very happy to be your pen pal. Please write back to me as soon as possible." Some Bosnian children enclosed photographs of their families, and others sent illustrations. One of them drew a picture of a tank.

"My father doesn't have a job now. This is because we had a war three years ago in our country," another child wrote.

After receiving the letters, the Japanese children learned about the tragic history of the civil war in Yugoslavia that claimed many lives between 1992 and 1995. They also read out all the letters they received.

"The quality of the paper my pen pal used wasn't very good, which is probably because there's a shortage of goods with the civil war," said Shoko Fujiwara. "But her message came through very clearly. I think there were a lot of things she wanted to say to people living in other countries."

The sixth graders at Miyagaya Elementary School hope that pupils in other grades will also become friends with kids in Bosnia in the future.

Photo: Miyagaya students look through letters received from their new freinds in Europe. (Asahi Shogakusei Shimbun)


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