Japanese Peace Program at Pen High, Sachiko Iwami

Mrs Sachiko Iwami is head Japanese language teacher at Peninsula High School. She graduated from Tsuda College in Tokyo, and was a Rotary Ambassador Scholar in 1992-3 in Asian-American studies at UCLA. She is also a curriculum advisor at the Orange Coast Gakuen Saturday Language School. She has helped to bring the Rotary-sponsored Global Peace Educational Project to her high school in coordination with Rotarian Makiko Nakasone of Little Tokyo and Rotary Clubs in Japan & District 5280 including PV Sunset.

Language and cultural studies integrate language with concepts of personal identities, families, communities, contemporary life, and modern technologies. The program has a Japanese Honor Society pledging to serve as a bridge of international understanding and an ambassador to promote friendship between countries.

The Peace Educational Project is a Rotary Model UN Peace Conference, with student training and preparation for simulated conferences on current international issues, including recent student trips to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, Survivor Tree-Planting in recognition of WWII internees, and learning peer mediation of disagreements and misunderstandings to avoid potential conflicts.