On March 11, the world watched as a monstrous tsunami hit the east coast of Japan, killing thousands and sparking a nuclear emergency. Although more than six months have passed since the tsunami, the Tohoku region of Japan remains in disrepair.

The tsunami is no longer global news, but Japanese teacher Yuko Aoki yearned for a way to assist those still suffering, and found an unlikely medium in her friend, a businessman named Alan Mockridge, who lives in Santa Clara.

Mockridge, formerly an English teacher in the area of Japan hit by the tsunami, enlisted the help of the school’s Japanese AP class, which created a special video letter that Mockridge presented to students at Ohtsuchi High School in Ohtsuchi, Japan, a town that was destroyed by the tsunami.
The project was spearheaded by Aoki, who had met Mockridge through a weekend Japanese school that both their children attend.

“ [Mockridge] suggested that we could make some kind of encouraging video and give the students a taste of Saratoga,” Aoki said. “We’ve done a similar video project before, so I knew the students would make a good video.”

Aoki said her Japanese students compiled video on different aspects of Saratoga life in order to encourage Ohtsuchi students. According to Mockridge, the Japanese students were particularly intrigued by the fact students could drive off-campus for lunch, as most bring their lunches from home. The video, spoken entirely in Japanese, ended with an encouraging message to the Ohtsuchi students, imploring them to stay strong and wishing them good luck.

“I think the project was really meaningful in the way we interacted with the students,” senior Phoebe Wong said. “I hope they found it heartwarming.”

Mockridge departed for Japan on Sept. 17 and returned Sept. 29, after having seen much of the destruction the tsunami caused and the attempts to rebuild.

“As a designated evacuation site, Ohtsuchi High still had evacuees living in their sports hall until the week before I visited,” Mockridge said. “The high school students had to share facilities with the elementary school students, whose school was completely destroyed.”

Mockridge said the Ohtsuchi High School students, only 1 percent of whom proceed to college due to the region’s isolation, enjoyed the Japanese class’ video.

“They were especially motivated and grateful to see the videos and hear about schools in America,” Mockridge said. “They were very surprised to see that so many Asians attended SHS. They were very moved by the message at the end.”

Mockridge returned to Saratoga on Oct. 17 to recount his experience with the Japanese class, sharing photographs of Ohtsuchi’s downtown, which is completely destroyed. Mockridge also worked with Los Gatos High School Japanese students to create multiple projects that he brought with him to Ohtsuchi.

“The whole district did a great job,” Aoki said. “The Japanese kids probably never thought that American high school students cared so much about them.”
Mockridge said that he donated an iPad to Ohtsuchi High and that he hoped its students would use it to create a video reply to SHS’ Japanese class.

“[Mockridge] did all of this voluntarily, and we could all learn from the way he gives back to the community,” Wong said.