ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) - “We call him our Japanese son,” said Dot Dudley, smiling at Nobuo Nakagawa.
Forty-seven years ago, Nobuo lived with Jack and Dot Dudley’s family in Orangeburg during his one-year stint as a foreign exchange student on an American Field Scholarship.
On April 11, Nakagawa and his wife, Sumiko, visited the Dudleys.
It was the first time for the Dudleys and Nobuo to see each other in 27 years. He had previously visited them in March 1990.
It was Sumiko Nakagawa’s first visit to the United States.
“I wanted to say thank you to the Dudleys because when he (Nobuo) was a boy, they treated him so kind and gentle, and I wanted to express my gratitude to Dad and Mom, brother and sister,” she said, beaming as her eyes filled with tears.
“In 27 years, Mom and Dad are older, but their characters haven’t changed,” Nobuo said.
Dale Dudley, the Dudleys’ son, said, “It’s great. I was such a good feeling seeing him coming off the plane.”
Dale said he and Nobuo embraced.
They became brothers when they were both at Orangeburg High School during the 1970-1971 school year.
Dale was a junior, Nobuo a senior.
“He liked to crack a lot of jokes … like his father and mother, and I had a good time,” Nobuo said of Dale.
“His culture is a little different,” Dale said. “They don’t do a lot of that (joking around).”
“We tend to be serious. We don’t crack many jokes, but here it’s completely different,” Nobuo said.
“He (Dale) helped me overcome my solitude,” he added. “I never felt lonely with the Dudleys.”
“In those days, I felt very lonely, but thanks to him (Dale), I felt at home,” Nobuo said.
And that’s the way it’s been for nearly half of a century.
“When (Nobuo) came, it did not take long for us to feel like he was a member of the family,” Dot said.
“Our feelings grew deeper and when he left to go back, it was almost like a death in our family. We just kept in touch. He just fit right in with the family, and we treated him that way,” she said.
Nobuo agreed.
“They are my American mom and dad,” he said.
Nobuo said 100 Japanese students came to the United States through the American Field Scholarship program and most of them studied as foreign exchange students in the northern part of the U.S.
“I was one of the few students who came to the South,” he said.
Nobuo said he knew he didn’t want to go to a region of the U.S. that would be cold so he was thankful to be in the warm South.
Not only were the temperatures warmer in the South, the racial tension was also heated.
“I saw lots of fights (at school),” Nobuo said.
The local school districts were officially integrated in the 1970-1971 school year.
The next school year, Orangeburg High School and Wilkinson High School, which was the city’s segregated high school for African-American students, merged.
Nobuo recalled learning about the role that the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. played in the Civil Rights movement and how that led to efforts for racial and social equality, particularly in the long-segregated South.
He said that when he returned to Japan, he told his family and peers about King’s life and legacy.
Nobuo said he was proud to bring his wife to Orangeburg during the recent visit to see the Dudleys.
“This is a very nice place,” Sumiko said.
“It’s like a resort in Japan. The tall trees and house. The scenery is just a resort in Japan. We don’t have these types of house — (houses are) much closer, smaller and compact (there),” she said.
The Nakagawas live in Osaka.
Nobuo said he looked forward to showing his wife the Atlantic Ocean.
In Japan, they are acquainted with the Pacific Ocean. The shores aren’t smooth and flat like they are on the coast of Charleston and nearby beaches.
One of the other treats he was grateful to introduce to his wife was Southern cuisine.
Dot Dudley prepared two of Nobuo’s favorite Southern dishes - brown rice and pork roast.
Nobuo and Sumiko brought homespun gifts to the Dudleys from Japan: Sumiko handstitched dish towels with vibrant-colored threads, and Nobuo presented each member of their family with several pieces of origamic architecture - three-dimensional cutouts of folded iconic structures, such as the White House, a Japanese-style bridge and the Taj Mahal.
Nobuo said he took him about two hours to make each piece of origamic art.
He said he also made origami for them when he visited the Dudleys in 1990.
“This time I brought something better than that,” he said.
Less than two weeks prior to his visit in April, Nobuo retired from teaching English and Italian at a public high school in Japan.
He said visiting the Dudley family was the first thing he wanted to do after his retirement.
The families have kept in contact over the years in various ways. For decades, it was through writing letters.
With modern technology, the families are now instantly in contact with each other despite being about 3,000 miles apart.
Social media, such as Facebook, has been a great facilitator.
The miles separating them don’t seem as far now.
Their hearts are near each other always.
“We look different, but we are brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters,” Nobuo said of his close relationship with the Dudleys.
One of the main lessons of the nearly 50-year relationship is “to love someone who is not like you,” Dale said.
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Information from: The Times & Democrat, http://www.timesanddemocrat.com
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