CNBNews

Gloucester City Resident Runs A Successful English School In Japan

Editors Note: Harry grew up in Gloucester City before entering the service he and his siblings lived in a corner house at Brown and Hudson Streets. After their father passed away, the children resided with their grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Harry Barron. Marie Miller, his mother, worked at Mosteigs Bakery at Brown and Bergen Sts.

Hank's brother is Joe Miller who still resides in Gloucester City and his sister Rose Miller Collins resides in Westville; and his other sister Veronica (Roni ) Arrera resides in Quinton, N.J. The Millers still to this day have a large extended family living in Gloucester City.

By Hank Miller Jr.

(Exclusive to ClearysNotebook)

Hi to all of you guys back there in my old home in Gloucester Town.  Some of you wonder what attracted me to settle here in Beautiful Japan and not to have returned to Gloucester City, N. J.  (photo Hank Miller Jr.)

Well!  To start with, after I left Vietnam, I went to work with Atlantic Richfield in June of 1975 in Singapore as an oilfield construction superintendent to construct offshore structures.  I changed companies under a new contract in 1977 and worked in the same capacity as a French Company and with more money.

That work took me to Japan to Sumitomo Heavy Industries at Wakayama.At that time I stayed there for about one month and I became acquainted with my wife Keiko, two weeks later I returned to my Singapore office and was sent to Indonesia for two years while I was corresponding with my wife Keiko the whole time, yes and almost every day too. (photo Kitakyushu City, Japan)

Then, I was sent back to Japan to the Nippon Steel fabrication Yard at Wakamatsu, located on Kyushu Island to oversee the construction of jackets, decks, and drilling platforms and related modules.

That work wasn't any different than the type of work I did when I worked at New York Ship and the Navy Yard, it's all steel and blueprints, etc. After meeting, my wife's parents we married and about two years later our first son Lucas was born.

I continued to work at the Wakamatsu yard for two more years. I was transferred to Sarawak, Malaysia to oversee the installation of all the construction that was done at the Wakamatsu, Japan yard.I continued to work for eight months and was about to be transferred to Gabon, Africa, single status for one year and I disagreed with that.I resigned and returned to Japan to be with my wife and son.We had made many friends here, and a friend suggested that I teach English. Keiko was a high school English teacher and got a job at the local high school.

Thus we started THE MILLER ENGLISH SCHOOL JAPAN. We worked from our home and at the local community centers in Kitakyushu City. It was difficult to get students, and it required quite a lot of advertising. It paid off; after about two months we got about 20 students, both adults and children started coming, and everything started taking shape. After 23 years and a lot of hard long hours of work, our business is at last successful. (photo Hank's family)

So you see! That's why we have been here for all these years now. We've raised three great kids here bought and paid for our home, cars, etc. as Japan's foreign property ownership process is quite easy.

All three of our kids went to school in the States from high school, Lucas went first and stayed at my sister Rosemarie's home in Westville. Lucas graduated from Gateway High School in Woodbury.

Max was the second to go to the States and he graduated from Beaverton High School located in Beaverton, Oregon. Rachel our youngest was the third to go to the States. She will graduate from Beaverton High School next May. Both Max & Rachel stayed at the home of a long-time good friend in Beaverton, Oregon.

Presently, Lucas is in the Army going through basic training at Fort Lenard Wood, Mo. Max is an L/CPL in the U.S. Marine Corps stationed in Okinawa. Max has just returned from a tour of Iraq where he was a member of the Security company fire team. He's presently a radioman and English, Japanese translator. Rachel, after graduation, will go on to university in San Diego, California.

All of our children are fluent in written and spoken English and Japanese.

We enjoy our lives here in Japan and are very well established in business as well as in the community we have many friends both Japanese and foreign. Our Island of Kyushu is a very beautiful place, and there are mountains all around, as well as a beautiful seacoast. We're about a 10-minute drive from the Sea of Japan. Our weather is semi-tropical and our winters are comparatively mild, but we do get a lot of rain in summer from the end of May to about the middle of July. We do get snow but very little, we'll get snow at the end of February and the beginning of March.

I hope that this will clarify the reason we chose to remain here in Japan.  Another thing where can a 70-year-old man work 8 to 10 hours a day in a stress-free environment and enjoy his life with his wife and still make good money???

Warm Regards With A Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
The Miller Family In
Kitakyushu City, Japan
Hank, Keiko, Lucas, and Max & Rachel