Greetings,
Today Hannah and I organized books on Hiroshima, Japanese Culture, Nuclear Weapons, History, etc. at the World Friendship Center. We learned how to utilize an online library catalog to help us organize and upload books online. We met interns from a local college and discussed how peace education differs around the globe. The interns said that their history education focuses solely on the A-bomb rather than other conflicts or details from World War II. Additionally, they said that the bombing has become normalized in their city because of how frequently they learn about it and the many memorials. This was surprising to me. The dropping of the A-bomb was so significant to me as a foreigner, but its normalized to locals. We also talked about differing approaches to peacebuilding and redressing violence- specifically, when attempting to move forward from an instance of large-scale violence, whether it is best to forget the past or accept and memorialize it. I am hoping to talk to them more about the common perceptions in the area as well as what peace activism looks like here.
Peace and love,
Zoe