The Greenwich
Japanese School Alumni Association (APPLESEED)
New York Chapter
Jamaica, New York (Queens)
187-30 Grand Central Parkway
Jamaica Estates, NY 11432
September 9, 1975 - December 21, 1980
The school's first home was located in a tiny building in
Queens. Located in a residential district, the building had no
playgrounds, and the gym was located in the basement. Physical
education classes took place in Cunningham Park, which was far
enough that it took an entire class period to get there and back.
As a result, physical education classes were always two periods
long, and sometimes the students even brought their lunchboxes
along.
In the Jamaica days, there was no set curriculum, so the
teachers worked furiously until 8 or 9pm every night, creating
lesson plans. When the Emperor came to New York, many of the
students went to the airport to see him off. Many of the parents
and teachers felt that a class period should not be cut just to
go see the emperor, so in the end we left it up to the parents to
decide whether they wanted their children to leave school early.
The children who remained in school studied alone in the library.
Back in those days, the teachers and parents felt that they had a
mandate to shape and develop the school.
We had many unique and interesting children. At the time, the
children loved American Football and disco. We felt that these
two activities would serve to deepen cultural understanding with
American children, and so these became prominent activities
during physical education classes.
The school had no playgrounds, nor a home economics
classroom. When we needed to make curry stew for home economics
class, we used the science laboratories. We made do with whatever
facilities were available, so we could teach subjects that we
felt were important to the development of the children.
Then one day, during the school speech tournament, a student
presented his speech, " I wish we had some
playgrounds." The parents took this speech to heart, and
quickly began to make plans for a move to a new building. It
served as an impetus for the move to the new Fresh Meadows
building.
(Roughly Translated from Ms.Oka and Ms. Kimura,
"Omoidebanashi")
ENTERING STAFF
1975:
Principal: Maruyama
Teachers: Hashigami, Naito, Ogawa, Itou, Kimura, Oka, Takebe,
Haruyama, Suomi, Dischler, Frisic
Administrative Staff: Nakayama, Iwatani, Higuchi
1976:
Vice Principal: Kinoshita
Teachers: Chiba, Ueno, Yamashita, Suzuki, Miyamoto, Chiba,
Epstein, Kamiyama, Siegel
Custodial: Bena Viedes
1977
Principal: Miyazaki
Teachers: Aida, Kimura
1978:
Vice Principal: Okada
Teachers: Ueda,Uemae, Matsuo, Fujiwara, Ito
1979:
Teachers: Ishikawa, Suzuki, Oku, Kanaya, Ishihara, Taniguchi,
Ooe, Perlman
Administrator: Okajima
1980:
Principal: Sugihara
Teachers: Ichimaru, Cardell, Sistek
Kaori Yamada.
Copyright © 1998 Kaori Yamada. All rights reserved.
Revised: June 15, 1998.