Graduation address for the September 2021 academic year

Congratulations to all the graduates of the September term! We can only imagine the joy of the parents who have reached this day. We offer our heartfelt congratulations. Here today, we welcome 31 undergraduate graduates who have earned their bachelor's degrees.

Now, it has been over a year and a half since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Initially, it was thought that the pandemic would subside in about a year, but the emergence of a more virulent delta strain has meant that we continue to live with COVID-19. The latter half of your university life has been dominated by online classes rather than in-person classes due to the pandemic.

Humankind has fought against infectious diseases such as the plague, cholera, smallpox, influenza, and Ebola hemorrhagic fever. In other words, we have a history of overcoming them, albeit at the cost of many tragic lives. Of course, this overcoming was due to the development of modern medicine, including the development of vaccines, but until bacteria and viruses were discovered and vaccines and effective treatments were developed, the battle against these invisible infectious diseases was fierce.

In today's commencement address, I would like to discuss a work of literary record about the plague that struck London in 1665 in 17th-century England, which is my area of expertise. It is Daniel Defoe's *A Journal of the Plague Year* (1772). Unlike the current coronavirus, the plague was caused by bacteria, not a virus. When infected with the plague bacterium, symptoms such as high fever, headache, and mental confusion occur, along with subcutaneous bleeding, which appears as black spots, hence it was feared in Europe as the "Black Death." The London plague was pneumonic plague, so like the coronavirus, it was transmitted by inhaling droplets from coughs and sputum containing the plague bacterium, but it had the terrifying characteristic of having an extremely high probability of death within three days of symptom onset.

While Defoe is famous as the author of Robinson Crusoe, he was also a devout Reformed Protestant, and reading "A Journal of the Plague Year" reveals how Londoners at the time faced infectious disease pandemics. The first death occurred at the end of 1664, and the plague, which raged from the spring of the following year, subsided at the end of September. However, complacency among citizens and the return of those who had fled London triggered a second wave of infection, which finally subsided in February of the following year, claiming the lives of approximately 100,000 of London's then-population of 600,000. That's one in six people dying. Perhaps as an "unintended consequence," it is said that Isaac Newton was able to discover the law of universal gravitation because the 1665 plague closed Cambridge University, eliminating face-to-face classes and giving him the opportunity to reflect deeply in his hometown.

So, what was London like during the plague pandemic? The king, nobility, and the wealthy fled to the countryside to escape the densely populated city. The mayor and the heads of the 28 boroughs ordered the sealing of houses where infected people were found as part of an isolation policy. Even if not all family members were infected, they were forced to stay indoors and not receive visits from acquaintances, without question, under the pretext of preventing the spread of infection. The uninfected families inside the buildings were in a terrible situation. Their anxiety was unimaginable. Guards were stationed to deliver food to the sealed houses, blocking the entry and exit of people. These guards were poor citizens who had lost their jobs due to the plague.

Then, they banned plays because they attracted large crowds, prohibited banquets hosted by the City of London and guilds, and closed coffee houses and taverns. While the mayor and district heads possessed this authoritarian side, they also promised and fulfilled promises to ensure a stable supply of bread and food and to curb price increases. They also worked to alleviate public fear by secretly removing bodies from buildings at night and burying them in public cemeteries before dawn. Furthermore, they personally went out into the streets, ensuring their own safety, to inspect dangerous areas and respond to petitions from citizens, carefully sending messages that addressed the mental health concerns of the public. The presence of such carefully explaining leaders "greatly restored the mental state of the citizens."

Citizens also made an effort to maintain social distancing. They walked at a distance to avoid human contact and walked in the middle of the road to watch out for people coming out of the sealed-off houses on both sides of the street. Perhaps as pioneers of contactless electronic money, they prepared plenty of small change to avoid receiving change when shopping, and in stores, instead of directly touching the money customers gave them, they had them place it in a jar filled with vinegar, which has disinfectant properties.

As you can see from the events of the plague over 350 years ago, humanity has been battling pandemics. Since then, modern medicine has developed and bacteria and viruses have been discovered, but we are still in danger of invisible infectious diseases. However, the era in which you will graduate and live will not be run by analog systems like London over 350 years ago, where citizens monitor other citizens. The fight against infectious diseases from now on will utilize digital technology, and we are entering an era where so-called digital surveillance systems will be introduced.

Up until now, Japan has refrained from using digital technology to prevent the spread of infectious diseases due to concerns that it could lead to the infringement of individual privacy. However, we are now in an era where digital technology is being used to prevent infectious diseases, such as apps that certify vaccination status and smartphone apps that notify users of contact with infected individuals using GPS. We must strike a balance between protecting individual freedom and introducing digital technology to prevent infectious diseases, with the aim of protecting the dignity of life. If there is no tension between these two, "individual freedom," which is the basis of "individual dignity," will be taken away without us realizing it, and a dystopia will emerge in which all individuals are manipulated according to the will of the state. Isn't this what the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us about this present and future?

To all the graduates of Tohoku Gakuin University who are about to graduate today: Tohoku Gakuin University is a university founded on Christian principles of character education, with LIFE, LIGHT, and LOVE as its school motto. Under these teachings, more than 190,000 graduates have spread their wings from this university. LIFE literally means the importance of life and respect for the dignity of the individual who possesses freedom. LIGHT is the radiance with which you contribute to society based on the knowledge and skills you have learned at this university. LOVE is a rich humanity that loves others with neighborly love and is loved by all. Under these teachings, we hope that you will grasp the times that are changing dramatically due to the infectious disease pandemic and live with hope, especially in these challenging times.

I offer my heartfelt congratulations on your graduation, and with that, I conclude my remarks.

September 30, 2021

Haruki Onishi, President of Tohoku Gakuin University