I left UPeace and Costa Rica on Wednesday, after finishing my thesis, to teach with Northwestern this summer in their Civic Leadership Institute. I arrived in Chicago on Thursday morning around 7, after leaving Costa Rica on Wednesday at 2pm. Then I wandered around campus for 4 hours trying to find the dormitory in which I now reside. And UIC's campus--where our program is housed this summer--is huge (think size of Ciudad Colon, or for the Kentuckians: Lily). The flight from San Jose was eventful: I ended up spending the majority of the night in Charlotte as our plane was delayed for 5 hours, which actually turned out to be a blessing. I didn't need to get a hotel on Wednesday night in Chicago, which saved me money.
After getting to the dorm, the crew from Northwestern met me and I got set up. Then we had 3 days of intense orientation, literally every minute from 9-8, except one 5 minute break a day (and meals), going through policies and hypothetical safety situations. Thus my orientation into not only Northwestern's program but other summer academic institutes akin (I think of the Governor's Scholars Program in Kentucky as a similar example). Orientation ended today, and now I'm preparing for tomorrow's arrival of the students. I'll be running to the airport tomorrow to pick up the students flying into Chicago. I'm excited and can already predict the intensity of the 3 weeks to come.
On an aside, tonight I went with 2 of the other instructors here to watch Michael Moore's new film "SiCKO." I went into the film with the experience of my brother Westley, and my father, who both have been screwed at the hands of insurance agencies, HMOs and health care in the US. Moore did a nice job of presenting personal stories from United Statesians across the country and having them share explain their situations. A number of the stories end with useless death at the hands of HMOs who dismiss the plight and ill of the average citizen. Then Moore went to Canada, Britain, France, and Cuba, to illustrate the ills of neoliberalism in health care, on the poor and even middle class. It's well done and speaks to the humanitarian in all of us. Though we could possibly criticize the film on specific points, this work, in consequence to the topic, seems much less partisan than other issues and films. It truly makes you leave the theatre disgusted at the inhumane treatment of people in our nation--being refused care to the point of death, or being dragged off in a cab and dropped on a random streetcorner--when they confront and use medical services across the country. Moore is a little humorous as usual in his method of resistance. Case in point, he makes an amusing comment half-way through referencing US imperialism and Canadian-US relations: he says "Americans only go into other countries when they need something" (referring to Americans crossing the border for cheap drugs and healthcare).
--------- 2 weeks later--------
I had my first piece published this week for which I am tremendously excited!: a chapter adapted from my thesis titled "Peace Education: Experience and Storytelling as Living Education (a portion of it blogged below, archived in June 2007). It feels pleasant to see some fruition from the countless hours I spent working on my thesis. And I am currently searching for other means of publishing as this is one of my short-term goals to publish at least 3 works before returning to graduate school in a couple of years. The article has received positive reviews from a number of educators, including Betty Reardon, calling it a "very fine article." To view the article, click: http://www.review.upeace.org/.
--------3 weeks later-------
At the end of CLI my students responded to my pedagogy and person: "Seriously Kevin, you are an awesome teacher. You're one of the greatest teachers I've ever had and I'm so inspired by you. I love talking to you, hearing your stories, and experiencing your unique teaching methods...There are 2 teachers that have influenced me and impressed me much in my life: my sociology teacher and you." Talk about an astounding compliment! Then another student wrote: "Kevin was amazing! The different methodologies that he implemented while managing to be a great mediator and facilitator in our conversation, it all was mind-blowing. His world perspective and implementation of Theatre of the Oppressed is something that I want to bring home with me." Their reviews went on like this, and one offered this critique which is right-on: Kevin is so fascinated with religion, that I sometimes felt like he didn't respect it." Though I do respect religion, I find that it's practice is often exclusive and oppressive.
The students certainly have been fantastic and as always I have learned a great deal from them. It's amazing how close people can bond in 3 weeks, and I'm a pro and recognizng certain similarities among these types of programs and the psyche they spawn in people, since I have now done programs like this on numerous occasions, both during high school and professionally. Tonight at the dance I was watching a number of the students begin to cope with the impending departure and separation. It's always difficult and I wondered if I've become emotionally callused because of my perpetual motion from city to city, country to country, and continent to continent.
------ 4 weeks later----
I'm taking the kids to the airport this Saturday, my fifth time there during this 1-month escapade with Northwestern, and I can't help but think of the endless hours I've spent at O'Hare--on my initial departure to Japan, my visit back home last year, my move to Costa Rica, my move to Chicago this summer, and ultimately I'll be back in about 2.5 weeks when I move to Korea. I now have an intimate relationship with this airport and the city, and expect this perplexing relationship to continue.
I'll be leaving here soon for home; the last time I was in Kentucky was last March, so I'm looking forward to this very much. I need to visit family and friends, and meet significant others for my sister and 2 best friends. I'll be meeting Henry and his girlfriend Katie here in Chicago...I'm very excited to meet her...and then I'll ride down to KY with them next week after I get my visa for Korea. I am quite excited to be returning home for a little while.
Then a little after a week at home and visiting family, I'll be going to NY for a Peace Education conference at the UN! I should also meet friends in NY, like Joyce!, and I'm looking forward to seeing Betty again after a year and a half. It should be nice to have this conference at the UN after spending a year at the University for Peace, and refreshing to return to the halls I visited when Henry was interning there...Then off to Korea!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Tornadoes and Jesus Camp
Two interesting events have happened to me this week. First, yesterday San Jose was struck by a tornado...this very rarely happens according to our friend Fred (a Tico). Two, I watched the documentary Jesus Camp. Each of these events follows on the heel of discussions I've had with friends. Respectively, I was describing to Shreya the two natural disasters I was most intrigued by: tornadoes and tsunamis. Less than a week later, San Jose is hit by a tornado. Then, I had several conversations with friends about the role of faith in our lives (a short transcript follows below). Amazingly, each of these 'happenings' (as the Japanese say) were brought to nexus in Jesus Camp, a short documentary about church camps in the Midwest. No doubt, church camps similar to those I grew up attending.
--------- BEGINNING OF CONVERSATION------
ME:
On faith in social activism and education: I personally think it is an important element of identity and has been left out of much dialogue on multiculturalism. It should be included in the discourse, and mainstreamed in certain spheres, as one additional identity that people hold. Hence, in addition to, not in place of, talks on race, gender, heterosexism, politics, ecology, etc., we should also talk about the role of faith in our lives. It is a contentious issue, as is faith in anything. To start, we should deconstruct the lexicon we use to convey images and meaning and the syntax it's packaged in. Is it inviting and opening, or is proselytizing and condemning? What does the word faith mean to each of us? (It will certainly have a different interpretation in each person.) Furthermore, What are the shared values between/underlying differing faith groups and how can they work together as forces for peacebuilding? The construction of such exchanges should be comprehensive, analyzing all identities each of us has (I am a white male, young, Kentuckian, US citizen, liberal, educator, traveler, brother, radical structuralist, etc, in one person--I am not simply one of these, nor is anyone else). Discourse ignoring the interface between these elements and the tremendous diversity within persons and faiths, in addition to between, is limited and anesthetized. I posit that it should be mainstreamed in organizations and educational institutions (comparative religions should be a course in the schools), but that it should not consume all of our efforts and be the only pardigm from which we depart. When such dialogue/curriculum is inititated it must be done in an honest manner; if it's coined interfaith, it should include Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity, etc, not be an exchange between only Christians or certain denominations. And the means must be consistent with the ends...if we're proclaiming pluralism and democracy we can't live and learn in unity/standardized conditions and authoritarianism as our so schools often presuppose; the organizations must work in conjunction with peoples not above them, and must realize that education is neither apolitical, neutral, or even areligious. The classroom is a very politicized space, if we recognize it or not.
RESPONSE:
First, I found it interesting that you did not include certain lables of yourself (I assume you were not intending to be exhaustive, but the ommissions are interesting: First, you did not lable yourself as an monolingual, bilingual or multilingual- which I believe has a strong impact on our lives. Secondly, you did not mention what religious affiliation you have, if any. Not that I need to know, but it was an interesting ommission given the topic! Secondly, and only loosly related to your email, i have been reading a book "Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World" which follows the ebb and flow of languages through social, cultural and technological changes. The last chapter I read said that "the 'Shield of Faith' is a strategy for maintaining languages that would otherwise become extinct due to political or other pressure. They specifically focused on Coptic in Egypt, Ge'ez in Ethiopia, Welsh in Argentina and Pennsylvania Dutch in the US. These languages have remained (at least in these locations) largely because of the bible being translated into them and people using them to maintain their faith. Hebrew is another example as a language that has survived the diaspora. The next chapter I am reading is on Arabic, so I am sure it will be interesting to see how this language was influenced by the spread of Islam. More in response to your email, I agree with you that it would not be possible, even if we wanted to, to avoid religion in social spheres. I am not a very religious person, but i was raised as a catholic who only goes to church about once a year and for weddings. The tradition i feel most strongly about is being a godparent, however, i dont assist in the spiritual upbringing of my godson... I was very annoyed to see obama, clinton and edwards attending the politics and religion interview on cnn. as much as one cannot avoid religion, i still believe strongly in a respectable separation between church and state.
MY RESPONSE:
I purposefully omitted the faith identity, as I don't identify with any one faith; I identify as having faith (more in the secular sense) but not with any particular group, though I grew up Southern Baptist. I also agree that language is a very important id that influences nearly every aspect of our understanding...was just trying to be brief in my list. I do think the presidential candidates should publicly discuss religion but the way in which it is framed should be critically analyzed. It's usually from a Christian perspective alone, is not pluralist; and it is this reason that I believe ignoring the role of Christianity in State policy and international affairs is extremely dangerous, because US policy is largely Christian or at least perceived by other nations as such. Many times we take the 'separation of church and state' concept to mean the State is not propagating religion in any way. This simply is not true. Though, as you say, I do think it is in our best interests to have secular governments, but as much as governments are made up of people they reflect the ids of those in office. Take Globalization, for instance, the US is the major driving force behind this; it is destructive to foreign communities, their identities, religions, languages, economic systems, etc.; it is racist in practice and is subtly Christian. Many of the MNCs operate with Christian values so to speak. I agree that the State should not be involved within any one religion and definitely should not act as a proselytizing force. However, the interpretation of 'separation of church and state' is usually manifest in silencing conversations and serious social discourse on the issue of faith. Take for instance the enforcement of the policy in schools: no discussion on faith may be initiated by instructors or administration. For what reason? This limits the analysis of faith's presence and creates an ignorant, unarticulative populace when it comes to faith. Are you familiar with 'color blind' policies? They're national and corporate policies that ignore the role of race in forming social and political power dynamics and access to goods and equal opportunity in life. The notion is that we're all the same and that race should not be taken into account in any sphere, because since we are all the same, we're not treated differently--but of course we all know this is farce. White men primarily, and patriarchy, control the social and governmental institutions; minoritites don't have access to the highest offices, and those that do often emulate White men or they're trophies. Race impacts the opportunity of all marginalized groups, despite all the rhetoric out there claiming the end of racism. In the end, I completely agree with you that we have to be cautious in how we handle faith and talk about it.
HER FINAL RESPONSE
Yes, I know exactly what you mean by the color blind policy. I took a current literacy theory course last semester and we talked a lot about the negative effects of supressing racial inequality by calling ourselves colorblind. frankly, i really hadn't
connected that same effect to religion. i absolutely agree that we/children/adults should learn about various religions and about the concept of religion in general, and historically- whichever way it can be analysed. i guess what i was thinking in the last email, and what i think you stated a little more clearly, is that politicians and the government do not discuss religion criticially very often. i took a world religions class in college and really enjoyed it. since then, i have mostly talked comparative religion with my saudi students. i really enjoy this- one of my students had to analyse the painting of the last supper, and a satire on this painting with star wars characters replacing each religious figure. it was fascintating to see how each religious figure was represented in our respective religions, and how the star war characters brought new meaning to the painting!
(At this point the conversation diverges to thoughts on Japan and xenophobia, and Bush and Sudan....)
----------END OF CONVERSATION--------
Much of what was said in the transcript above is touched on in Jesus Camp. In the end, it is a great documentary far too close to the experiences I had as a child with church and politics in rural Kentucky. I.e. Republican=good Christian; Democrat=secularist. Therefore, nothing else matters and we should all be obediant Republicans. Additionally, you see in the film how the church is propagating Bush as the return of Christian principles and leadership to the US, how the kids connect the church with the military, and how all of this is embodied in the notion that the US was founded by Christians on Christian values and hence should return to this radical hertitage.
Now...why all the excitement over the tornado in San Jose? Primarily, because it's further empirical proof that climate change is radically occurring, yet many of our cultures wish to ignore this phenomenon or brush it off as overbloated-liberal-'doomsday-ish'-rhetoric. Jesus Camp comments in several iterations about global warming (to the feel that they believe it to be exaggerated or cooked-up); this commentary on global warming, politics, religion, the arts (the church camp in the film denounced Harry Potter as evil), etc., illustrates the argument made above very well. Moreover, I am sincerely amused by the fact that if when people become aware of issues going on around them, the problems become so bright and plainly visible; but if people are focused too much on other, lesser enigmas, the important issues slip right past them (thus the power of decoys and spectatorship in politics). It's essentially a type of conscientization, and I'm always intrigued by how, when illuminated, everything comes together so well, like a jigsaw puzzle. More on the film....
CRITIQUE OF JESUS CAMP: THE DOCUMENTARY
All this being said, the film is actually quite annoying. Though it offers tremendous insight into fundamental evangelical youth movements, the directors talk over the film the entire way through, disrupting the flow so that you miss what is actually going on behind their blah, blah, blah. Furthermore, the directors are appropriating what Jesus Camp means by making their commentary about the actual events--they talk so much you don't hear the 'characters' statements. It's very annoying, and further, they aren't even saying anything of worth; they just keep qualifying everything with lame, inconsequential adjectives. Nonetheless, it's certainly worth the hour to watch it.
--------- BEGINNING OF CONVERSATION------
ME:
On faith in social activism and education: I personally think it is an important element of identity and has been left out of much dialogue on multiculturalism. It should be included in the discourse, and mainstreamed in certain spheres, as one additional identity that people hold. Hence, in addition to, not in place of, talks on race, gender, heterosexism, politics, ecology, etc., we should also talk about the role of faith in our lives. It is a contentious issue, as is faith in anything. To start, we should deconstruct the lexicon we use to convey images and meaning and the syntax it's packaged in. Is it inviting and opening, or is proselytizing and condemning? What does the word faith mean to each of us? (It will certainly have a different interpretation in each person.) Furthermore, What are the shared values between/underlying differing faith groups and how can they work together as forces for peacebuilding? The construction of such exchanges should be comprehensive, analyzing all identities each of us has (I am a white male, young, Kentuckian, US citizen, liberal, educator, traveler, brother, radical structuralist, etc, in one person--I am not simply one of these, nor is anyone else). Discourse ignoring the interface between these elements and the tremendous diversity within persons and faiths, in addition to between, is limited and anesthetized. I posit that it should be mainstreamed in organizations and educational institutions (comparative religions should be a course in the schools), but that it should not consume all of our efforts and be the only pardigm from which we depart. When such dialogue/curriculum is inititated it must be done in an honest manner; if it's coined interfaith, it should include Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity, etc, not be an exchange between only Christians or certain denominations. And the means must be consistent with the ends...if we're proclaiming pluralism and democracy we can't live and learn in unity/standardized conditions and authoritarianism as our so schools often presuppose; the organizations must work in conjunction with peoples not above them, and must realize that education is neither apolitical, neutral, or even areligious. The classroom is a very politicized space, if we recognize it or not.
RESPONSE:
First, I found it interesting that you did not include certain lables of yourself (I assume you were not intending to be exhaustive, but the ommissions are interesting: First, you did not lable yourself as an monolingual, bilingual or multilingual- which I believe has a strong impact on our lives. Secondly, you did not mention what religious affiliation you have, if any. Not that I need to know, but it was an interesting ommission given the topic! Secondly, and only loosly related to your email, i have been reading a book "Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World" which follows the ebb and flow of languages through social, cultural and technological changes. The last chapter I read said that "the 'Shield of Faith' is a strategy for maintaining languages that would otherwise become extinct due to political or other pressure. They specifically focused on Coptic in Egypt, Ge'ez in Ethiopia, Welsh in Argentina and Pennsylvania Dutch in the US. These languages have remained (at least in these locations) largely because of the bible being translated into them and people using them to maintain their faith. Hebrew is another example as a language that has survived the diaspora. The next chapter I am reading is on Arabic, so I am sure it will be interesting to see how this language was influenced by the spread of Islam. More in response to your email, I agree with you that it would not be possible, even if we wanted to, to avoid religion in social spheres. I am not a very religious person, but i was raised as a catholic who only goes to church about once a year and for weddings. The tradition i feel most strongly about is being a godparent, however, i dont assist in the spiritual upbringing of my godson... I was very annoyed to see obama, clinton and edwards attending the politics and religion interview on cnn. as much as one cannot avoid religion, i still believe strongly in a respectable separation between church and state.
MY RESPONSE:
I purposefully omitted the faith identity, as I don't identify with any one faith; I identify as having faith (more in the secular sense) but not with any particular group, though I grew up Southern Baptist. I also agree that language is a very important id that influences nearly every aspect of our understanding...was just trying to be brief in my list. I do think the presidential candidates should publicly discuss religion but the way in which it is framed should be critically analyzed. It's usually from a Christian perspective alone, is not pluralist; and it is this reason that I believe ignoring the role of Christianity in State policy and international affairs is extremely dangerous, because US policy is largely Christian or at least perceived by other nations as such. Many times we take the 'separation of church and state' concept to mean the State is not propagating religion in any way. This simply is not true. Though, as you say, I do think it is in our best interests to have secular governments, but as much as governments are made up of people they reflect the ids of those in office. Take Globalization, for instance, the US is the major driving force behind this; it is destructive to foreign communities, their identities, religions, languages, economic systems, etc.; it is racist in practice and is subtly Christian. Many of the MNCs operate with Christian values so to speak. I agree that the State should not be involved within any one religion and definitely should not act as a proselytizing force. However, the interpretation of 'separation of church and state' is usually manifest in silencing conversations and serious social discourse on the issue of faith. Take for instance the enforcement of the policy in schools: no discussion on faith may be initiated by instructors or administration. For what reason? This limits the analysis of faith's presence and creates an ignorant, unarticulative populace when it comes to faith. Are you familiar with 'color blind' policies? They're national and corporate policies that ignore the role of race in forming social and political power dynamics and access to goods and equal opportunity in life. The notion is that we're all the same and that race should not be taken into account in any sphere, because since we are all the same, we're not treated differently--but of course we all know this is farce. White men primarily, and patriarchy, control the social and governmental institutions; minoritites don't have access to the highest offices, and those that do often emulate White men or they're trophies. Race impacts the opportunity of all marginalized groups, despite all the rhetoric out there claiming the end of racism. In the end, I completely agree with you that we have to be cautious in how we handle faith and talk about it.
HER FINAL RESPONSE
Yes, I know exactly what you mean by the color blind policy. I took a current literacy theory course last semester and we talked a lot about the negative effects of supressing racial inequality by calling ourselves colorblind. frankly, i really hadn't
connected that same effect to religion. i absolutely agree that we/children/adults should learn about various religions and about the concept of religion in general, and historically- whichever way it can be analysed. i guess what i was thinking in the last email, and what i think you stated a little more clearly, is that politicians and the government do not discuss religion criticially very often. i took a world religions class in college and really enjoyed it. since then, i have mostly talked comparative religion with my saudi students. i really enjoy this- one of my students had to analyse the painting of the last supper, and a satire on this painting with star wars characters replacing each religious figure. it was fascintating to see how each religious figure was represented in our respective religions, and how the star war characters brought new meaning to the painting!
(At this point the conversation diverges to thoughts on Japan and xenophobia, and Bush and Sudan....)
----------END OF CONVERSATION--------
Much of what was said in the transcript above is touched on in Jesus Camp. In the end, it is a great documentary far too close to the experiences I had as a child with church and politics in rural Kentucky. I.e. Republican=good Christian; Democrat=secularist. Therefore, nothing else matters and we should all be obediant Republicans. Additionally, you see in the film how the church is propagating Bush as the return of Christian principles and leadership to the US, how the kids connect the church with the military, and how all of this is embodied in the notion that the US was founded by Christians on Christian values and hence should return to this radical hertitage.
Now...why all the excitement over the tornado in San Jose? Primarily, because it's further empirical proof that climate change is radically occurring, yet many of our cultures wish to ignore this phenomenon or brush it off as overbloated-liberal-'doomsday-ish'-rhetoric. Jesus Camp comments in several iterations about global warming (to the feel that they believe it to be exaggerated or cooked-up); this commentary on global warming, politics, religion, the arts (the church camp in the film denounced Harry Potter as evil), etc., illustrates the argument made above very well. Moreover, I am sincerely amused by the fact that if when people become aware of issues going on around them, the problems become so bright and plainly visible; but if people are focused too much on other, lesser enigmas, the important issues slip right past them (thus the power of decoys and spectatorship in politics). It's essentially a type of conscientization, and I'm always intrigued by how, when illuminated, everything comes together so well, like a jigsaw puzzle. More on the film....
CRITIQUE OF JESUS CAMP: THE DOCUMENTARY
All this being said, the film is actually quite annoying. Though it offers tremendous insight into fundamental evangelical youth movements, the directors talk over the film the entire way through, disrupting the flow so that you miss what is actually going on behind their blah, blah, blah. Furthermore, the directors are appropriating what Jesus Camp means by making their commentary about the actual events--they talk so much you don't hear the 'characters' statements. It's very annoying, and further, they aren't even saying anything of worth; they just keep qualifying everything with lame, inconsequential adjectives. Nonetheless, it's certainly worth the hour to watch it.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Experience and Storytelling as Living Education (A Story of Hiroshima)
My thesis ("Homogeneous Schooling and the Perpetuation of Gender Bias and Racial Discrimination in Japanese and Kentucky Classrooms") has been consuming my time lately. I have hardly left my apartment, except to go to Bagelman's to write...so tonight, no thesis, just spirits. So I offer you some insights into my madness....If you have any thoughts, post your comments.
I know many of you won't want to read such a verbose post, so I offer you this: skip all of my blah, blah, blah, and read Kuniko's personal experience, as a young girl living in Hiroshima at the time of the Atomic Bombing (in quotes). She shares an amazing memoir.
STORYTELLING TO REMEMBER
Teachers College lives up to its reputation. As we sit in the chilled room on the 4th floor of the Mitsui Seimei Building, it’s raining outside. Other towering complexes surround us and the sound of subway trains passing comes in through the windows. The walls are freckled with poster paper. We’re here to study peacemaking and conflict resolution, and our friend Kuniko Soga is telling a story from her youth. She begins the narrative following a sociodrama, and when I realize what she’s talking about I’m awestruck.
Hiroshima 1945
"All of a sudden, a flash of light, similar to what is often emitted by a light bulb when it goes out, but is much, much stronger and sharper, blinded our eyes. Then, a big exploding sound pierced our ears, and strong and uncomfortably lukewarm wind almost knocked us down, shaking the whole house and shattering into pieces all the windowpanes of the rooms facing toward the city. Terrified, we all ran into a half-finished shelter my uncle had carved out on the side of a hill right behind the house. After a while, it became very quiet as if nothing had happened. We came out of the shelter and walked up to the top of the hill. There up in the sky, we saw a strange-looking cloud, somewhat like a huge mushroom, in shiny bright pink. We said to each other, “What is it? I haven’t seen anything like that in all my life. The color is so beautiful.” Then, we all fell into silence, stunned by the extremely unusual sight in the sky. I said to myself, “Yes, it is beautiful. It is “my color,” the girls’ color,” the color of clothes and toys for me, an only girl child of the family.
However, it didn’t take long before we realized that what had happened and was happening in the city then was nothing at all beautiful. Thousands of people were thrown alive into hell. Two hours later, breaking the silence of bewildered villagers, badly–injured or severely–burned relatives and friends from the city came running into their houses. Mother’s younger brother who owned a sake shop near the central train station was among them with his wife and two boys whose faces were all covered with blood. They were hit in their heads by falling roof tiles as they escaped from the sea of fire.
That evening, we eagerly and anxiously waited for the two cousins to return home from their schools. Masae, the girl, finally dragged herself home late at night, walking all 20 kilometers from the city. Tsutomu, the boy, did not come home. The following day, my uncle and aunt walked into the city and to the junior high school Tsutomu attended, and saw the school building completely demolished; but they found metal lunchboxes left there placed in a neat line, one after another about 50 centimeters apart. The students who were to eat those lunches their mothers had packed that morning were nowhere to be seen. For nearly a month afterwards, my uncle and aunt went into the city every day, visiting makeshift clinics to look for their son. Tsutomu has never made it home.
One day in late September when the weather got a bit cooler, we had a funeral for Tsutomu. We put in a small wooden coffin his uniform and satchel from his elementary school days, his books and his carpenter’s knife. He was fond of carving broken branches he found in the yard into objects of various shapes for his younger brother and cousins. My mother told me to put something in, too. I didn’t want to put anything pink in the coffin. I chose a white seashell I found by the beach when we went swimming on a more peaceful day a few years earlier.
Sixty–one years later, I still see that huge pink mushroom whenever I look up at the sky and close my eyes. The image of the color is beautiful, but all those ugly scenes underneath keep coming back into my mind, too. Yes, any nation or group can start a war with such beautiful slogans as “Love your country”, “Save those oppressed”, “Bring peace to the world”, etc. Under those beautiful words, lie agony, misery, and the inconsolable sorrow of individual families."
I was studying in the Peace Education program at Teachers College Columbia University in Tokyo with Dr. Betty Reardon, Janet Gerson and Tony Jenkins; and Kuniko, with her wisdom and kindness, had become a good friend. As the story recounts, Kuniko witnessed the tragedy and the dawn of the nuclear age from the distant safety of her home on the outskirts of Hiroshima city. She continues to teach for peace and seek answers to the questions in her heart; but what followed for her that day was a bombardment of psyche and a long reconcilable process between her world, of distant horizons and a shared future.
It was in this learning moment, in this space, when Kuniko first shared her story with us that opened me up to, as an educator, for the possibility of using storytelling as a substantial teaching methodology for education for peace. This moment of experience sharing gave me a personal connection to one of the most horrific moments in the annals of humanity, and gave a grim face to old, yellowed pages in a history textbook. Suddenly history was very real, it was a part of today—today yesterday, yesterday today, and both informing the future—and the periphery of the present broadened for me. It was a collision of the famous words of T.S. Eliot—Time present and time past are perhaps present in time future and contained in time past…In my beginning is my end…In succession houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass—and a living, breathing encounter of Elise Boulding’s concept ‘the 200-year present.’ Boulding (1988) contends that in our 200 year present—those living today born a hundred years ago, and those living a hundred years from their birth today—we will have met many people, created great networks, and made great possibility. In that moment with Kuniko I met another world, and in the span of time of ‘the 200-year present’ extraordinary change is possible.
STORYTELLING AS PEACE PEDAGOGY
The fundamental thesis behind this research is that schooling in homogeneous contexts perpetuates racist and sexist attitudes because students, teachers, administrators, and parents have not been exposed to non-dominant life perspectives, and the diversity that does exist within these schools goes unnoticed. However, this is not to suggest that growing up in homogeneous conditions warrants discriminatory attitudes, but that the singular context may reinforce such beliefs. Consequently, the subordinate groups quietly present within homogeneous situations experience a type of ‘blind’ oppression; and so long as the educators within these homogeneous schooling locales do not experience education and life within diverse areas, they are probably doomed to replicating the homogeneous education they received with all its insidious power dynamics.
If educators leave these contexts to later return, travel to metropolitan regions, study in different locales, and appropriate cosmopolitanism, then they bring back to their schools a radically different education. This education is not necessarily to be valued over, which in so doing would contradict the value of diversity, but is to appreciate the intercultural experiences gained through such an education. These experiences hopefully accompany greater understanding and sensitization toward others, particularly if gained through an experience of oppression, hence developing increased comprehension of motives of oppressors.
Christine Sleeter (1996) writes:
Teachers bring to their work a worldview that is constructed within unequal racial relationships, but they usually do not recognize it as such…Most whites live in racially homogeneous neighborhoods, families, social groups, and churches, and consume media that are dominated by whites. Most whites spend little or no extended time on non-white “turf,” although they may incorporate a few people of color into their own worlds…Travel and contact experiences can sometimes help whites realize how much they do not understand about race relations and sensitize them to injustices and to perspectives and experiences of other groups. (pp. 79-80).
One of the great successes of the feminist movement and other movements of the 20th century has been to expose the injustices that perpetuate social institutions (i.e., schools, governments, patriarchy, marriage, etc.). In unclothing these injustices feminist scholars have documented struggles by sharing and recording histories. This process of sharing, listening, and recording lived experiences of the marginalized empowers those ‘without a voice’ by giving the silenced vociferation. Essentially this act is accomplished through the art of storytelling. Listening to, respecting and earnestly being interested in the experiences of all helps to counter the hegemony of the dominant groups. Mies (1983) writes:
Women have so far not been able to appropriate, i.e., make their own, the social changes to which they have been subjected passively in the course of history. Women do make history, but in the past they have not appropriated their history as subjects. Such a subjective appropriation of their history would lead to something like a collective women’s consciousness (in analogy to class consciousness) without which no struggle for emancipation can be successful. The appropriation of women’s history can be promoted by feminist scholars who can inspire and help other women to document their campaigns and struggles. (p. 127).
Senehi (2000) claims storytelling is a means of peacebuilding:
Storytelling—like all cultural production is a means through which community is constructed. Through stories, groups and societies create, recreate, and alter social identities, power relations, knowledge, memory, and emotion…Thus, peacebuilding involves community building in a way that is driven forward by the parties themselves and not imposed from above or without. (p. 97).
This style of respecting and being engaged with others’ experiences is potentially accrediting for the subjected and presents the opportunity to rehear and understand the world from varied perspectives, especially those of the subjugated classes. And what is storytelling but an act of art. Like the recording of oral histories, storytelling also acts as a form of historical documentation. Storytelling is one of the great forms that give song to the unsung. As discussed above, this thesis proposes the intervention of Peace Education and the arts to deal with issues of injustice in the classroom. Cynthia Cohen (2005) writes:
Engaging with the arts can generate, for both individuals and collectivities, for creators and spectators, special qualities of attention and response -- such as disinterestedness, committed participation, meta-cognitive alertness, receptivity, and blissful serenity. These qualities of attention and response afford unique opportunities for learning, empathy, reflexivity, creativity, innovation and experimentation. The engagement with a work of art or cultural form that gives rise to these special qualities of attention and response can best be understood within the framework of aesthetic experience. (n.p.).
Storytelling is, therefore, apparatus for conflict transformation. Through the use of storytelling an opportunity is given for participants to share their lived experiences, affirm each other, and create and internalize new possibilities. The use of the arts in the classroom leads to richer discussion and more complete engagement by the students who are aesthetically engaged, as well as scientifically, which in return promises deeper reflection, altered attitudes, and changed behaviors.
If all societies have elements of peaceful behavior (Boulding, 2000), the practice of peace storytelling then could be utilized as a technique for eliciting stories of peace, as well as for envisioning peaceful futures. This would in effect help to raise problems, dialogue solutions, and potentially lead to reconciliation through storytelling. Essentially this is a participative process of community building between the individual and society. Boulding refers to the influence of Fred Polak’s work on her research as a sociologist. Polak discovered that the images of the future that peoples hold for themselves in fact influences their behaviors. Societies ‘tended to be empowered by positive images of the future.’ (ibid, p.105). Peace storytelling acquaints us with stories of peace from the past and constructive ways of dealing with adversity, conflict and injustices today and in the future. Each society has numerous peace heroes of the past to write volumes on and to share with children. Augusto Boal’s Theatre as a form of storytelling aids education cohorts in imaging peaceful culture through the exploration of microcosmic relations, particularly transition images from a system of oppression to a world of liberation.
STORYTELLING FOR TRANSFORMATION
We return to Kuniko Soga’s story. Her vision of the future, 100 years following the bombardment, and several generations after but connected to that catastrophic morning of August 1945. Kuniko’s vision offers faith, healing, and a critical mind. This chapter ends with her story as it exemplifies one possible classroom activity for schoolteachers—creative writing and storytelling as sharing and envisioning a better world—and is an exploration of values and, not least of all, hope. Storytelling is a means to remember, to share, and to create possibilities.
Hiroshima 2045
"In July, 2045, Taro is sitting in a peace education class at a junior high school in Hiroshima. The class meets once a week, and what he learns has helped him a lot to resolve conflicts peacefully with his friends, siblings and parents. Since childhood Taro has been told by his parents and grandparents that an atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima by a US bomber in 1945, killing hundreds of thousands of people instantly. His great-grandmother was at school in Hiroshima city then, but she narrowly escaped from the sea of fire, by running for her life all the way home. Her younger brother was killed at the age of 12.
At that time in 1942-45 when Japan was at war with the United States, many young people went to battlefields, with the firm determination that they would put even their lives at risk in order to protect their own country, their parents or their families from the enemy. They believed that fighting fiercely was the only right way to resolve the conflict between the two countries, because information about situations in other parts of the world was not easily available due to the lack in information technology. The radio and the newspapers were practically the only means of mass media, and the news sources were strictly controlled by the government and the military. At school, students were indoctrinated to believe only what the military government wanted the young people to know.
Taro is 12 years old now, the same age of his great-grandmother’s brother when he was killed by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima 100 years ago. Education and information technology have changed greatly ever since. The global network of the Internet has made it possible for anyone, even a young boy like Taro, to access information he needs to investigate and get hold of social and physical environments he’s currently surrounded with. Good English education has enabled the students to understand the vast pool of English information put out by diverse sources in the world. At school, students are taught how to analyze the information they acquire and raise proper questions to lead them into the next step in their search for the truth. Bringing together the results of their research to the classroom, the teacher and the students discuss a lot to broaden and deepen their knowledge and understanding of situations that surround them in the world.
In the past 30 years, Japan has maintained independent defense capability against a military or other violent attacks by any aggressive nation. It had taken Japan a long time since the end of WWII in 1945 to came out free of the US military umbrella by terminating the bilateral agreement of the Japan-US Security Treaty. Japan has put in efforts to train professionals who can develop advanced scientific knowledge and skills in defending the country. They have also been educated about high moral values of non-violence and respect for the basic human rights of any person on earth. At the same time, our diplomats are well disciplined in negotiating with others to arrive at a peaceful resolution to any conflict. With the strong defense body staffed and supported by these capable scientific, technical and diplomatic professionals, Japan can now stand firmly on her own in dealing with other independent nations.
Such change in the attitude and structure of Japan’s self-defense body has been promoted by the increasingly strong commitment of all the UN member countries to the multilateral efforts in maintaining peace in the world. Whenever any disruption to world peace or any conflict among nations should take place anywhere in the world, the revitalized UN takes an initiative in listening to parties involved, and bringing their cases to the discussion table of the UN. After the deliberate and fair judgment of each case, the UN negotiates with parties concerned or organizes some defense body for action, if necessary, to restore peace. In the latter case, every member country contributes their defense capability in one form or another in accordance to what the UN decides.
One-hundred years after the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Taro lives in a much safer world, because of good education, a strong sense of responsibility and capability by Japan for her own self-defense, and the firm commitment by all the UN member nations for cooperative and multilateral efforts in maintaining peace in the world. His life won’t be violently nipped off early like his great-grandmother’s brother was, but he can look forward to putting what he received through education to the service of making the world a better and safer place for the next generation of people. On the other hand, Taro feels grateful to his great-grandmother for running for her life from the atomic-bomb catastrophe. Because she had survived he’s here today to enjoy a happy and peaceful life."
I know many of you won't want to read such a verbose post, so I offer you this: skip all of my blah, blah, blah, and read Kuniko's personal experience, as a young girl living in Hiroshima at the time of the Atomic Bombing (in quotes). She shares an amazing memoir.
STORYTELLING TO REMEMBER
Teachers College lives up to its reputation. As we sit in the chilled room on the 4th floor of the Mitsui Seimei Building, it’s raining outside. Other towering complexes surround us and the sound of subway trains passing comes in through the windows. The walls are freckled with poster paper. We’re here to study peacemaking and conflict resolution, and our friend Kuniko Soga is telling a story from her youth. She begins the narrative following a sociodrama, and when I realize what she’s talking about I’m awestruck.
Hiroshima 1945
"All of a sudden, a flash of light, similar to what is often emitted by a light bulb when it goes out, but is much, much stronger and sharper, blinded our eyes. Then, a big exploding sound pierced our ears, and strong and uncomfortably lukewarm wind almost knocked us down, shaking the whole house and shattering into pieces all the windowpanes of the rooms facing toward the city. Terrified, we all ran into a half-finished shelter my uncle had carved out on the side of a hill right behind the house. After a while, it became very quiet as if nothing had happened. We came out of the shelter and walked up to the top of the hill. There up in the sky, we saw a strange-looking cloud, somewhat like a huge mushroom, in shiny bright pink. We said to each other, “What is it? I haven’t seen anything like that in all my life. The color is so beautiful.” Then, we all fell into silence, stunned by the extremely unusual sight in the sky. I said to myself, “Yes, it is beautiful. It is “my color,” the girls’ color,” the color of clothes and toys for me, an only girl child of the family.
However, it didn’t take long before we realized that what had happened and was happening in the city then was nothing at all beautiful. Thousands of people were thrown alive into hell. Two hours later, breaking the silence of bewildered villagers, badly–injured or severely–burned relatives and friends from the city came running into their houses. Mother’s younger brother who owned a sake shop near the central train station was among them with his wife and two boys whose faces were all covered with blood. They were hit in their heads by falling roof tiles as they escaped from the sea of fire.
That evening, we eagerly and anxiously waited for the two cousins to return home from their schools. Masae, the girl, finally dragged herself home late at night, walking all 20 kilometers from the city. Tsutomu, the boy, did not come home. The following day, my uncle and aunt walked into the city and to the junior high school Tsutomu attended, and saw the school building completely demolished; but they found metal lunchboxes left there placed in a neat line, one after another about 50 centimeters apart. The students who were to eat those lunches their mothers had packed that morning were nowhere to be seen. For nearly a month afterwards, my uncle and aunt went into the city every day, visiting makeshift clinics to look for their son. Tsutomu has never made it home.
One day in late September when the weather got a bit cooler, we had a funeral for Tsutomu. We put in a small wooden coffin his uniform and satchel from his elementary school days, his books and his carpenter’s knife. He was fond of carving broken branches he found in the yard into objects of various shapes for his younger brother and cousins. My mother told me to put something in, too. I didn’t want to put anything pink in the coffin. I chose a white seashell I found by the beach when we went swimming on a more peaceful day a few years earlier.
Sixty–one years later, I still see that huge pink mushroom whenever I look up at the sky and close my eyes. The image of the color is beautiful, but all those ugly scenes underneath keep coming back into my mind, too. Yes, any nation or group can start a war with such beautiful slogans as “Love your country”, “Save those oppressed”, “Bring peace to the world”, etc. Under those beautiful words, lie agony, misery, and the inconsolable sorrow of individual families."
I was studying in the Peace Education program at Teachers College Columbia University in Tokyo with Dr. Betty Reardon, Janet Gerson and Tony Jenkins; and Kuniko, with her wisdom and kindness, had become a good friend. As the story recounts, Kuniko witnessed the tragedy and the dawn of the nuclear age from the distant safety of her home on the outskirts of Hiroshima city. She continues to teach for peace and seek answers to the questions in her heart; but what followed for her that day was a bombardment of psyche and a long reconcilable process between her world, of distant horizons and a shared future.
It was in this learning moment, in this space, when Kuniko first shared her story with us that opened me up to, as an educator, for the possibility of using storytelling as a substantial teaching methodology for education for peace. This moment of experience sharing gave me a personal connection to one of the most horrific moments in the annals of humanity, and gave a grim face to old, yellowed pages in a history textbook. Suddenly history was very real, it was a part of today—today yesterday, yesterday today, and both informing the future—and the periphery of the present broadened for me. It was a collision of the famous words of T.S. Eliot—Time present and time past are perhaps present in time future and contained in time past…In my beginning is my end…In succession houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass—and a living, breathing encounter of Elise Boulding’s concept ‘the 200-year present.’ Boulding (1988) contends that in our 200 year present—those living today born a hundred years ago, and those living a hundred years from their birth today—we will have met many people, created great networks, and made great possibility. In that moment with Kuniko I met another world, and in the span of time of ‘the 200-year present’ extraordinary change is possible.
STORYTELLING AS PEACE PEDAGOGY
The fundamental thesis behind this research is that schooling in homogeneous contexts perpetuates racist and sexist attitudes because students, teachers, administrators, and parents have not been exposed to non-dominant life perspectives, and the diversity that does exist within these schools goes unnoticed. However, this is not to suggest that growing up in homogeneous conditions warrants discriminatory attitudes, but that the singular context may reinforce such beliefs. Consequently, the subordinate groups quietly present within homogeneous situations experience a type of ‘blind’ oppression; and so long as the educators within these homogeneous schooling locales do not experience education and life within diverse areas, they are probably doomed to replicating the homogeneous education they received with all its insidious power dynamics.
If educators leave these contexts to later return, travel to metropolitan regions, study in different locales, and appropriate cosmopolitanism, then they bring back to their schools a radically different education. This education is not necessarily to be valued over, which in so doing would contradict the value of diversity, but is to appreciate the intercultural experiences gained through such an education. These experiences hopefully accompany greater understanding and sensitization toward others, particularly if gained through an experience of oppression, hence developing increased comprehension of motives of oppressors.
Christine Sleeter (1996) writes:
Teachers bring to their work a worldview that is constructed within unequal racial relationships, but they usually do not recognize it as such…Most whites live in racially homogeneous neighborhoods, families, social groups, and churches, and consume media that are dominated by whites. Most whites spend little or no extended time on non-white “turf,” although they may incorporate a few people of color into their own worlds…Travel and contact experiences can sometimes help whites realize how much they do not understand about race relations and sensitize them to injustices and to perspectives and experiences of other groups. (pp. 79-80).
One of the great successes of the feminist movement and other movements of the 20th century has been to expose the injustices that perpetuate social institutions (i.e., schools, governments, patriarchy, marriage, etc.). In unclothing these injustices feminist scholars have documented struggles by sharing and recording histories. This process of sharing, listening, and recording lived experiences of the marginalized empowers those ‘without a voice’ by giving the silenced vociferation. Essentially this act is accomplished through the art of storytelling. Listening to, respecting and earnestly being interested in the experiences of all helps to counter the hegemony of the dominant groups. Mies (1983) writes:
Women have so far not been able to appropriate, i.e., make their own, the social changes to which they have been subjected passively in the course of history. Women do make history, but in the past they have not appropriated their history as subjects. Such a subjective appropriation of their history would lead to something like a collective women’s consciousness (in analogy to class consciousness) without which no struggle for emancipation can be successful. The appropriation of women’s history can be promoted by feminist scholars who can inspire and help other women to document their campaigns and struggles. (p. 127).
Senehi (2000) claims storytelling is a means of peacebuilding:
Storytelling—like all cultural production is a means through which community is constructed. Through stories, groups and societies create, recreate, and alter social identities, power relations, knowledge, memory, and emotion…Thus, peacebuilding involves community building in a way that is driven forward by the parties themselves and not imposed from above or without. (p. 97).
This style of respecting and being engaged with others’ experiences is potentially accrediting for the subjected and presents the opportunity to rehear and understand the world from varied perspectives, especially those of the subjugated classes. And what is storytelling but an act of art. Like the recording of oral histories, storytelling also acts as a form of historical documentation. Storytelling is one of the great forms that give song to the unsung. As discussed above, this thesis proposes the intervention of Peace Education and the arts to deal with issues of injustice in the classroom. Cynthia Cohen (2005) writes:
Engaging with the arts can generate, for both individuals and collectivities, for creators and spectators, special qualities of attention and response -- such as disinterestedness, committed participation, meta-cognitive alertness, receptivity, and blissful serenity. These qualities of attention and response afford unique opportunities for learning, empathy, reflexivity, creativity, innovation and experimentation. The engagement with a work of art or cultural form that gives rise to these special qualities of attention and response can best be understood within the framework of aesthetic experience. (n.p.).
Storytelling is, therefore, apparatus for conflict transformation. Through the use of storytelling an opportunity is given for participants to share their lived experiences, affirm each other, and create and internalize new possibilities. The use of the arts in the classroom leads to richer discussion and more complete engagement by the students who are aesthetically engaged, as well as scientifically, which in return promises deeper reflection, altered attitudes, and changed behaviors.
If all societies have elements of peaceful behavior (Boulding, 2000), the practice of peace storytelling then could be utilized as a technique for eliciting stories of peace, as well as for envisioning peaceful futures. This would in effect help to raise problems, dialogue solutions, and potentially lead to reconciliation through storytelling. Essentially this is a participative process of community building between the individual and society. Boulding refers to the influence of Fred Polak’s work on her research as a sociologist. Polak discovered that the images of the future that peoples hold for themselves in fact influences their behaviors. Societies ‘tended to be empowered by positive images of the future.’ (ibid, p.105). Peace storytelling acquaints us with stories of peace from the past and constructive ways of dealing with adversity, conflict and injustices today and in the future. Each society has numerous peace heroes of the past to write volumes on and to share with children. Augusto Boal’s Theatre as a form of storytelling aids education cohorts in imaging peaceful culture through the exploration of microcosmic relations, particularly transition images from a system of oppression to a world of liberation.
STORYTELLING FOR TRANSFORMATION
We return to Kuniko Soga’s story. Her vision of the future, 100 years following the bombardment, and several generations after but connected to that catastrophic morning of August 1945. Kuniko’s vision offers faith, healing, and a critical mind. This chapter ends with her story as it exemplifies one possible classroom activity for schoolteachers—creative writing and storytelling as sharing and envisioning a better world—and is an exploration of values and, not least of all, hope. Storytelling is a means to remember, to share, and to create possibilities.
Hiroshima 2045
"In July, 2045, Taro is sitting in a peace education class at a junior high school in Hiroshima. The class meets once a week, and what he learns has helped him a lot to resolve conflicts peacefully with his friends, siblings and parents. Since childhood Taro has been told by his parents and grandparents that an atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima by a US bomber in 1945, killing hundreds of thousands of people instantly. His great-grandmother was at school in Hiroshima city then, but she narrowly escaped from the sea of fire, by running for her life all the way home. Her younger brother was killed at the age of 12.
At that time in 1942-45 when Japan was at war with the United States, many young people went to battlefields, with the firm determination that they would put even their lives at risk in order to protect their own country, their parents or their families from the enemy. They believed that fighting fiercely was the only right way to resolve the conflict between the two countries, because information about situations in other parts of the world was not easily available due to the lack in information technology. The radio and the newspapers were practically the only means of mass media, and the news sources were strictly controlled by the government and the military. At school, students were indoctrinated to believe only what the military government wanted the young people to know.
Taro is 12 years old now, the same age of his great-grandmother’s brother when he was killed by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima 100 years ago. Education and information technology have changed greatly ever since. The global network of the Internet has made it possible for anyone, even a young boy like Taro, to access information he needs to investigate and get hold of social and physical environments he’s currently surrounded with. Good English education has enabled the students to understand the vast pool of English information put out by diverse sources in the world. At school, students are taught how to analyze the information they acquire and raise proper questions to lead them into the next step in their search for the truth. Bringing together the results of their research to the classroom, the teacher and the students discuss a lot to broaden and deepen their knowledge and understanding of situations that surround them in the world.
In the past 30 years, Japan has maintained independent defense capability against a military or other violent attacks by any aggressive nation. It had taken Japan a long time since the end of WWII in 1945 to came out free of the US military umbrella by terminating the bilateral agreement of the Japan-US Security Treaty. Japan has put in efforts to train professionals who can develop advanced scientific knowledge and skills in defending the country. They have also been educated about high moral values of non-violence and respect for the basic human rights of any person on earth. At the same time, our diplomats are well disciplined in negotiating with others to arrive at a peaceful resolution to any conflict. With the strong defense body staffed and supported by these capable scientific, technical and diplomatic professionals, Japan can now stand firmly on her own in dealing with other independent nations.
Such change in the attitude and structure of Japan’s self-defense body has been promoted by the increasingly strong commitment of all the UN member countries to the multilateral efforts in maintaining peace in the world. Whenever any disruption to world peace or any conflict among nations should take place anywhere in the world, the revitalized UN takes an initiative in listening to parties involved, and bringing their cases to the discussion table of the UN. After the deliberate and fair judgment of each case, the UN negotiates with parties concerned or organizes some defense body for action, if necessary, to restore peace. In the latter case, every member country contributes their defense capability in one form or another in accordance to what the UN decides.
One-hundred years after the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Taro lives in a much safer world, because of good education, a strong sense of responsibility and capability by Japan for her own self-defense, and the firm commitment by all the UN member nations for cooperative and multilateral efforts in maintaining peace in the world. His life won’t be violently nipped off early like his great-grandmother’s brother was, but he can look forward to putting what he received through education to the service of making the world a better and safer place for the next generation of people. On the other hand, Taro feels grateful to his great-grandmother for running for her life from the atomic-bomb catastrophe. Because she had survived he’s here today to enjoy a happy and peaceful life."
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