The graduation ceremony is, of course, a time for celebration, as we congratulate all of you on achieving your aims and graduating successfully from the School of International Liberal Studies. This year, however, as you have just heard, our pleasure in this ceremony cannot help but be shadowed by the tragedy of losing three precious members of our community, Marie Abe, Yui Komuro and Yuto Tabata, in the bus accident in Karuizawa. The death of any young person is a tragedy, because we feel intensely just how much has been lost. We can feel this tragedy especially intensely in this case, not only because these three students were our students and friends, but also because all three of them represented the best of SILS. All three of them were lively, bright, internationally minded and deeply responsible young adults who we know would have contributed so much
to the world and also so enjoyed pursuing their careers in it. We mourn them and would like to express our deepest sympathy to their families. At the same time, though, we are also reminded by this terrible loss of just how precious life is and how we have a duty not to waste the opportunities and the advantages that we have been given and that have been so tragically taken away from these three young people.
