Glad your friends and yourself didn’t have to go through what I went through. A lot of the teachers I worked with there also didn’t experience what I went through but they all supported me after those unfortunate experiences. I was the only teacher of color at the time though. As for the military past, Utsunomiya played a key role during WWII, also there are many shrines built for Japanese soldiers who died during WWII, the one shrine I visited was for soldiers who perished in Borneo. It’s just a guess why they behave in the way they do, I didn’t investigate more into it. But for me, I’m super happy I don’t live there anymore. I’ve had great times in Niigata, Ibaraki, Tokyo and Yokohama. Just my story that’s all.