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UW Oshkosh students and professors pause for a picture in front of the National Museum of Japanese History in Chiba Prefecture while visiting Japan in May 2014 as part of the Kakehashi project.

It is hard to fathom that it has nearly been three years since a massive undersea earthquake generated a devastating tsunami and nuclear disaster that left Japan reeling and the world in shock.

On March 10, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh — while hosting a group of exchange students from Japan — will welcome a guest speaker who experienced the aftermath of the earthquake three years ago. At a 6:15 p.m. presentation on March 10, guest speaker Karen Henrickson, Japanese teacher at Madison Country Day School, will discuss her experience as a Kizuna Project leader following the April 2011 Tohoku earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi plant disaster.

The March 10 event will take place in UW-Oshkosh’s Reeve Memorial Union Ballroom, room 227A. It is free and open to the public.

The event will also feature recently-returned, UW-Oshkosh study-abroad students and the Japanese students currently on a short exchange to the U.S., as part of the “Kakehashi Project” (kakehashi translates to “bridge”).

This past spring interim, through the program, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided funding to send 23 UW Oshkosh students and two UW Oshkosh professors to Japan for 10 days. In return next month, UW-Oshkosh will host 23 Japanese students, two Japanese escorts and an interpreter, also fully funded by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.