In an effort to provide opportunities to listen to real English outside the classroom, the English Language Program, a part of the university’s Department of Foreign Language Education, offers lectures in the ELP Lecture Series. In this ongoing series, each lecturer chooses an accessible topic and explains it in English which is neither too difficult nor too easy.
The twelfth lecture in the series, “‘We are Americans, too’: Wartime Japanese-American Relocation and the Role of Oberlin College,” will be held on Monday, June 22. This summer marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Although that war’s military conflict was concentrated primarily in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, a conflict of a different sort unfolded quietly within the United States: from 1942 to 1944, over 100,000 people of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated to “internment camps” for “safety” and “security.” Most of these relocated people were born in the United States and held American citizenship. ELP teacher Cassie Guevara will explain how the progressive Oberlin College, from which J. F. Oberlin University takes its name, played an important role in alleviating the internees’ suffering by accepting displaced Nisei students.
The ELP Lecture Series is open to students, faculty, staff, and anybody else whose English skills could use a bit of a challenge. This is a great opportunity for you to have a little overseas study experience right here at home. The first eleven lectures in the ELP Lecture Series can be watched here:

• ELP Lecture Series
• For more information about the ELP in Japanese, please click here.

The lecture will be in English with no translation. There is no fee to attend, and reservations are not necessary.

For additional information, please call the Cornerstone Center office: 042-797-9341. Fax: 042-797-9342. E-mail: corners@obirin.ac.jp