IWAKUNI CITY, Japan -- Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni’s Cultural Adaptation Program visited Tenno Elementary School to plant rice with Japanese locals in Iwakuni City, Japan, June 10, 2017.
MCAS Iwakuni residents volunteered to step in a muddy, water-filled rice paddy where they laid several rows of young rice plants.
The event is held annually in June, after the rice seeds that were sown during April and May are grown and ready to be planted. Station residents have been participating in the event for more than 10 years.
“The air station got together with local Iwakuni people to have a Japan and U.S. friendship event,” said Mikie Watanabe, a cultural adaptation program specialist. “It’s a great opportunity to meet the local Japanese community and have new experiences.”
Cultivating rice takes 140 days of a great amount of care. It’s a process that involves preparing rice paddies, planting seeds and plants, harvesting them a few months later, then drying, hulling, milling and finally enriching the rice.
Manually planting rice has been replaced with machines and other innovations to produce the crop on a massive scale, so taking the time to plant each one is as rare of an experience for many Japanese people today as it is for Americans.
“This is the type of thing they want to pass on from generation to generation, even with the mechanization of agriculture,” said Jewel Naffziger, a station resident. “It’s just nice to get down and dirty the way it was years and years ago and keep it alive, and appreciate more where the rice comes from.”
The station residents will be invited in October to help harvest and taste the rice they planted.
Giving station residents the opportunity to participate in events like these is part of the Cultural Adaptation Program’s ongoing mission to show Americans Japanese customs and traditions, and it allows them to experience it for themselves.
“I think this is a good way to learn to bridge the divide and realize we’re all human,” said Naffziger. “I think it’s important, and it goes a long way. I wish we could take this kind of stuff back to the United States so we could have more love and more appreciation of each other and of the simple things in life.”
For upcoming events or more information from the Cultural Adaptation Program call 253-6165.