Zoe Hovde – 2023 IWU Freeman Asia

Greetings,

Today Hannah and I rode a bike to the World Friendship Center. One singular bike. I noticed that environmentally clean transportation is much more popular in Japan than in the US. Additionally, we worked on organizing the library in the World Friendship Center all day. We became more comfortable using LibraryThing and I learned more about the peace initiatives that WFC puts together, such as the peace choir and English classes, both of which were held at the center today.

Peace and love,

Zoe

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

Greetings from Hiroshima,
Each day I will post a brief update on what I see, learn, question, etc. These posts will be followed by my weekly blog posts that will be much lengthier and include visuals as well. Today was my first full day in Hiroshima. Hannah and I toured the World Friendship Center and met the lovely staff. We also ventured off on your own to Peace Memorial Park. It was interesting to see how many tourists there were. Peace Boulevard was full of tourists walking, taking photos, and shopping. In addition, I am still trying to learn the language. My goal is to learn a bit of vocabulary that will help me travel. The people at WFC speak english, but in town and at the airport Japanese is mostly spoken.

Peace and love,

Zoe

Welcome to my blog! This is my first post. This July I will be flying to Hiroshima to intern with the World Friendship Center. I think it will be a great opportunity for me to learn more about Japanese culture and attitudes toward the atomic bomb. I have already met several of the people I will be working with online. They all had great things to say about the center, which makes me even more excited to intern. I would like to utilize this blog as a way to show how my knowledge of Hiroshima develops over the next couple of months. I will be able to compare what I know before I go and what I learn while I am there. 

So far, I know that the United States dropped a bomb on Hiroshima during World War 2. It was the first and only example (besides Nagasaki) of nuclear weapons being used in history. This was a massive human rights violation on behalf of the United States. It killed and impacted a lot of people. Due to its impact, I believe that there is probably a great amount of intergenerational trauma apparent in Hiroshima today. I have read that some places are still inhabitable due to the radiation still left from the bomb. This is what I know about the bombing now, but I am interested in seeing how my knowledge changes over the next couple of months after I have finished my readings and have been to Hiroshima.

Besides the atomic bomb, I am curious to learn more about the geography of the city. For the most part, I only know that Japan is an island in Asia and Hiroshima is in the southern part. I was told by my site supervisor that the city is nice for hikes and walks along the water. I am excited to be able to do that in my free time as well as explore the city. Besides geography, I am curious about food as well.

I know that Japanese diets are meat and fish-heavy. I have been to several Japanese festivals in my hometown and, at these festivals, there were a lot of foods with red bean paste, mochi, and sushi. I am vegan so I am hoping it will not be too challenging to be able to try authentic Japanese foods. 

I recently picked up two books to read before my internship, so I am hoping to learn much more about Hiroshima and Japan from those. 

Thanks for reading my blog,

Zoe