2022年度卒業式告辞

Congratulations to the 2,578 graduates of Tohoku Gakuin University, the 42 students completing their Graduate Schools, and those who have earned their doctoral degrees. I can only imagine the joy of the parents who have eagerly awaited this day. As president, I offer my heartfelt congratulations.

Furthermore, this year's graduation ceremony will be held in two separate sessions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. I would like you to recall that I first met many of you graduates here four years ago, on April 3, 2019, at Kamei Arena Sendai. It was the entrance ceremony shortly after I took up my position at Tohoku Gakuin University, so both you and I were quite nervous. Four years have passed since then. During this time, we have all breathed the same air at Tohoku Gakuin University, but that was the only year we were able to conduct classes normally in person. For the following three years, we were forced to live a restricted student life, incorporating remote learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, you have all strived for self-management and crisis management, acquired the necessary credits for graduation, and had your graduation exams, graduation theses, master's theses, and doctoral theses accepted, allowing you to graduate from your alma mater, Tohoku Gakuin University, as bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree holders.

In January of this year, the university received some very exciting news. Atsushi Sato, a graduate of our university (Faculty of Letters Department of English), was awarded the 168th Akutagawa Prize for his work *The Family of the Wasteland*.Some of you may have already read it, but the story depicts the protagonist’s inner landscape—which can only be described as a “wasteland”—in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The protagonist, Yuji Sakai, is a 40-year-old man who runs a landscaping business in Watari Town.Through his interactions with his first wife, who died of illness leaving behind their son; his second wife, who ran away from home after a miscarriage; and classmates and others in his circle with whom he shares a complicated history, the novel depicts post-disaster daily life and the loneliness, desolation, and bitterness felt by those living in the disaster-stricken area. It concludes by chronicling the hope that has emerged with the passage of time.Twelve years after the disaster, at a time when people’s memories are beginning to fade, the novel skillfully conveys the emotions that remain in their hearts.While some readers find the work too “dark” or “painful” to read, I see it as a work that reflects the author, Atsushi Sato’s, candid, earnest, and straightforward character—traits typical of someone from Tohoku.The Akutagawa Prize selection committee members also commented, “People are saved by their attitude of enduring desperate situations with all their might and striving to act with sincerity, even while feeling their own powerlessness,” and “I sensed a sincerity that did not exploit the disaster for convenience.”By depicting the suffering and despair caused by the disaster with the same sincerity as a journalistic report, Mr. Sato sought salvation from that very suffering and despair.

Now, you all experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake when you were in the upper grades of elementary school, so I believe you are the last generation to retain those memories. You are also the generation whose activities were restricted for three-quarters of your four years of university due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In that sense, you are graduates who have grown up facing the suffering and difficulties caused by natural disasters. As you enter society, you may be criticized for being good at IT but lacking communication skills, or for not knowing basic manners, as if you were returning soldiers whose youth was stolen by war.

However, you all know firsthand how painful, tragic, and heavy the earthquake disaster was, due to the tsunami and the nuclear power plant accident, and you know what to do to avoid the risk of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, you have thought about how to become stronger and wiser as a result of suffering. Natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis that strike suddenly, and epidemics such as COVID-19, cannot be prevented no matter how advanced science and technology become. Moreover, the risk of infectious diseases like earthquakes and COVID-19 is increasing due to increased plate movement and global warming.

Tohoku Gakuin University, from which you will all graduate, not only teaches specialized fields of science and technology, but also, with Christian character education as its founding principle, has taught a path to salvation from suffering and a hopeful way to live as stronger and wiser people. Christianity itself taught a path to salvation from evil and suffering under the oppression and persecution of the ancient Roman Empire. In the New Testament, Revelation 21:4, God says, "He will wipe every tear from your eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or mourning or pain, for the first things have gone away," speaking of a new hope in salvation. Akutagawa Prize-winning author Sato has shown, through literature, salvation from the suffering of the "wasteland" by sincerely depicting the daily lives of people after the earthquake.

I am confident that, as graduates of Tohoku Gakuin University, you have experienced the suffering of the earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic, and that this experience will allow you to overcome your suffering and become stronger and wiser individuals capable of preparing relief. Tohoku Gakuin University's school motto is LIFE LIGHT LOVE. You never know what kind of suffering or difficulties await you in the future. LIFE: I hope you will cherish life and individual dignity, LIGHT: I hope you will contribute to society with the results of what you have learned at university and the skills you have cultivated through club activities, and LOVE: I hope you will not only love people and nature, but also become people who are loved by people and nature. As graduates of Tohoku Gakuin University, I hope you will carry this "mind map" of LIFE LIGHT LOVE with you as you embark on your respective journeys.

Congratulations on your graduation!

March 23, 2023

Haruki Onishi, President of Tohoku Gakuin University