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On very cold winter days, a group of Japanese children traveled a long way and arrived at a small island where nobody lived．After setting up a camp, they caught fish in the sea, and walked on the snow to find firewood, wild fruit and fresh water．Then they made a fire to do some cooking．They were not homeless children or modern Robinson．They were all pupils from a primary school and campers of special "hardship camp．”
Every year primary and middle schools in Japan organize such camps to train the children’s spirit of bearing hardship．Such places as thick forests and far-off mountains are often chosen as camp places．
The Japanese education circles(教育界)usually think it necessary to give children chances of suffering hardships．Children in Japan now may hardly find times of hardships, because of the rapid growth of national economy and improvement in the people’s living conditions．The experts think that such hardship camps can help children learn to live and develop in the struggle against nature in modern society．
It’s said that such hardship camps are warmly accepted by both Japanese school children and their parents．
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