Words Came True a Few Decades Later After Graduation

March in Japan is the season of graduation ceremonies. In many school graduation ceremonies, the graduating students all join together to sing the song “Aogeba toutoshi” (respecting teachers), which expresses gratitude to teachers. While this song is a kind of standard song for graduation ceremonies, there are always some students who sing it with tears in their eyes.

The graduating students promise eternal friendship with one another before going their separate ways. However, after they have graduated, students often meet for class reunions where they talk about their recent lives and re-confirm their friendships.

In the junior high school I graduated from we have a class reunion once every few years, even though a few decades have now passed since our graduation. Usually the older we become, the fewer classmates join these parties. However, as for our class reunion, about 30 classmates attend every time and I often participate myself.

As our hair is thinning and our faces are becoming more lined, it is natural that we are finding it more difficult to remember the names of our classmates after such a long period. Our previous class reunion was held in a Japanese banquet style. Mr. F, who used to be my good friend during our school days, sat on my right, but I couldn’t remember the name of the man sitting on my left.

I had no memory of this man – not only of his name but also of his face. He often called me by my first name and Mr. F also chatted with him in a very friendly manner. It became nearly impossible to ask him for his name. While I was feeling irritated about it, he left for the toilet.

While he was gone, I asked Mr. F about the man and he answered “No, I don’t have any memory of him either.” Actually, nobody around me remembered him. Everybody looked puzzled. After a while he came back and ev erybody stopped talking about him.

To change the mood in the room, someone said to all the classmates, “Which teacher among all the teachers you have been taught by do you think is best?” The faces and memories of various unique teachers including a beautiful “idol” teacher of Japanese language, a science teacher who often asked us to study ourselves while he was taking a nap, a music teacher who was tone-deaf and others all came to mind.

Just then the man next to me, whose named escaped me, said in a loud voice, “I believe K sensei (teacher) of Math is definitely best.” At that moment everyone suddenly remembered that the man was Mr. Y. He had transferred from another school and every day after school he used to receive a private supplementary lesson from K sensei.

K sensei was a very fierce woman, and used to be called the “Old Devil Woman” behind her back. She would throw chalk at sleepy students during her classes, stamp her feet in anger when a student couldn’t answer a question and clapped her hands in joy when a student could answer a question. I was scolded several times by her.

“Every day she made me stay behind alone, so I had a grudge against her at that time. However, now I am very thankful to her for her devotion. Thanks to her, I could become a licensed tax accountant,” continued Mr. Y. Then, many people said “me too,” “me too,” expressing their gratitude for the late K sensei. I was one of them.

I remembered something K sensei said “I am sure all of you think I nag too much. However, when you grow old enough, you will understand what I have done.” These words came true a few decades later after our graduation. Whenever the graduation ceremony season comes around, I always remember K sensei, even now.

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