Defense Department elementary school students build sorobans during a workshop at the Tsukazan Community Center and Museum in Haebaru town, Okinawa, March 20, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
HAEBARU TOWN, Okinawa — A 6-year-old Japanese girl stood with her back to Defense Department students gathered Thursday to learn about the Japanese abacus, or soroban, at the Tsukazan Community Center and Museum.
As a series of 10 two-digit numbers flashed on a screen in front of her, her hands moved swiftly, clicking beads on an invisible soroban as she calculated in her head.
Just seconds after the numbers stopped, she gave the correct answer — 556 — and the room erupted in cheers.
The girl demonstrated how some Japanese students become so adept at mathematics on a soroban that they can do away with the actual device and perform calculations mentally. Two other Japanese students repeated the mental arithmetic with larger numbers, earning even bigger cheers.
Suyin Gillen, center, and Frank Long build sorobans during a workshop at the Tsukazan Community Center and Museum in Haebaru town, Okinawa, March 20, 2025. Both students attend Ralph F. Stearley Primary School at Kadena Air Base. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
Defense Department elementary school students build sorobans during a workshop at the Tsukazan Community Center and Museum in Haebaru town, Okinawa, March 20, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
The demonstration capped off a soroban workshop sponsored by the Department of Defense Education Activity-Pacific and Okinawa’s branch of the League for Soroban Education of Japan.
The 120 DODEA students in grades two through five — 15 from each of the eight DODEA elementary schools on Okinawa — built their own personalized soroban, with their names engraved in Japanese. They then learned how to add and subtract using the 400-year-old device.
“You experience putting it together — that means you have a very clear understanding of how it works,” Melissa Hayes, DODEA’s Pacific South District superintendent, told Stars and Stripes as the students assembled their sorobans.
A soroban “allows students to see and manipulate a physical representation of abstract numbers,” according to The Japan Society website. Japanese third- and fourth-graders are required to practice soroban in math class, according to the education ministry’s website.
Before 2020, DODEA students participated in soroban competitions alongside Japanese students in Okinawa and mainland Japan. American students on Okinawa competed for more than 20 years, soroban league director Mitsuhiko Arakaki said before Thursay’s event.
Defense Department elementary school students react to a soroban demonstration at the Tsukazan Community Center and Museum in Haebaru town, Okinawa, March 20, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
After the COVID-19 pandemic, DODEA shifted to a soroban workshop instead, beginning last year, Hayes said.
Students also received a crash course in soroban history. China introduced its version of the abacus to Japan in the 1600s, and the Japanese refined it to suit their needs, according to a video presentation shown to students.
“Nowadays, no businesses use the soroban to calculate, but I want people to know that this tool existed,” Arakaki said. “And it is not only about calculating, but you can also improve your imagination, concentration and thinking ability.”
Third-grader Lydia Maxey, of Bob Hope Elementary on Kadena Air Base, enjoyed building her soroban, though she made it backward.
“So, my name was put in backwards,” she said.
Maxey plans to show her siblings and parents how to use it, though she doubts she’ll match the skills of the Japanese students.
“How do they do it?” she asked after the event. “A 6-year-old can do all of that? I can’t do that.”
Stars and Stripes reporter Keishi Koja contributed to this report.
