Dad’s Dilemma: Corporate Life or Classroom?

My dad and his class with several other teachers at Mikage Industrial High School. (1969)

My dad wanted to be a teacher more than anything. But when he got his teaching license in 1968, there were no teaching posts available. Instead, he joined a very respected corporation, Fujitsu, which made my grandfather very proud and my father very quiet about his secret ambition to eventually return to the classroom.

“After World War II, the Japanese government built many industrial schools to send more engineers to corporations so that they could contribute to Japan’s recovery and surpass the Western nations,” Dad explains. “But my timing wasn’t right.”

In early August of 1969, the newspaper reported that two teachers and five students of the Mikage Industrial High School climbing club in Kobe were killed in a mudslide in the Chuo Alps of Nagano Prefecture. The tragedy became national news.

Soon after that, my father’s friend, Konishi, called. “He asked me if I was still interested in becoming a teacher,” Dad recalls. “Konishi said he saw a bulletin in his graduate school that said two teaching positions had unexpectedly opened at Mikage Industrial High School.”

Following Konishi’s advice, my dad contacted the school board. They gave him a recruitment exam and a job interview right away. When he received a notice of acceptance several days later, he told my grandpa that it was time for him to quit his corporate job and return to the classroom (He had been at Fujitsu just five months). My dad’s concern turned out to be for naught. Grandpa was not upset. Teaching was still a highly respected job back then, especially in the country village where my grandpa lived, so he probably thought that his son’s career shift would not embarrass him (that’s the kind of guy Grandpa was, although he was always great to me).

When the oil shocks occurred in the 1970s, Grandpa thought it reconfirmed that my dad’s career change was the right decision because teachers in public schools are government employees and their salaries would not be severely affected by the economic downturn. Besides, the government paid an extra 10% to teachers in industrial high schools for engaging in the promotion of industrial education.

My dad’s last day at Fujitsu was September 30th, 1969. I can imagine him, only 22 at the time, having no regrets about leaving the corporate world behind and trying to stay calm on the train heading back to Kobe to start a new chapter in his life. He recalls his first day as a teacher. “I went straight to Mikage Industrial High School upon my arrival in Kobe in the early morning on October 1st. I entered the campus from the side gate and found all the students and teachers standing out on the field. I wasn’t told anything about it in advance, but they were waiting for my arrival to do an arrival ceremony. ‘Ono Sensei!’ Someone called and motioned me to come over. I was forced to go on the stage to greet everyone and then sent straight to teach a class for two hours. That was my first day as a teacher, a career I pursued for the next 26 years.”