TOMODACHI Alumni Highlight: Ayano Hirose, from TOMODACHI Next Generation Summit 2025
This month’s alumni highlight features Ayano Hirose, one of six speakers at the TOMO Voice Speech Contest during the Next Generation Summit 2025. Ayano is an alumna of the TOMODACHI Toshizo Watanabe Study Abroad Scholarship Program. Speaking on this year’s theme, the “derukui network,” she shared how her study abroad experience at the University of California, Berkeley deepened her passion for Japanese American history and strengthened her voice as a leader.
In Japan, there is a well-known saying called “derukui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる).” It means the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. But what if that “derukui (出る杭)” stood up with courage? Even then, must we still hammer it down? When I was a freshman in college, I was selected as a radio personality. However, I started receiving insensitive comments from listeners about my voice and my opinions, and gradually became afraid of standing out.
However, everything began to change during my sophomore year, when I participated in a leadership program funded by the Toshizo Watanabe Study Abroad Scholarship. There, I met other students who were talking about their dreams, such as “I want to perform on Broadway,” or “I want to start a business in the United States.” No one laughed at their dreams. There was an environment where everyone listened and supported each other. And that was the first “derukui (出る杭) network” for me. As part of the program, I visited the Japanese American National Museum and learned about the history of wartime incarceration and discrimination from Japanese American storytellers. They were also “derukuis (出る杭)” as minorities, and continued to speak out for justice, and I was deeply moved by this history. Through listening to their stories, I strongly felt a responsibility to convey this history to future generations. Later, I taught Japanese American history to high school students as a TOMODACHI intern.
Through the TOMODACHI experience, I have now discovered a different path that is not common for Japanese students. Instead of following my peers’ path of job hunting, I decided to continue pursuing my academic passion of researching Japanese American history. The incarcerated Japanese Americans have shown their courage by standing up against injustice, and I want to become the nail that sticks out, so that people will never forget their stories of resilience. In the words of Japanese American Senator Daniel Inouye, “History is an excellent teacher, provided we heed its lessons; otherwise, we are likely to repeat them.” Especially in these uncertain times, I want to continue sharing the stories of Japanese Americans who courageously stood out as “derukuis（出る杭）”.
This article was transformed from his speech script by Nina Takanami on September 1, 2025. Nina is currently an intern with the TOMODACHI Alumni leadership program.
