GILE - SIG Newsletter

Issue#27

Messages About Peace

from Students of Tokyo Metropolitan Hoya Senior High School

Edited by Masumi Ikeda

I think peace is no more wars, no violence, no poverty and a clean world. We must change our mind and change existing wrong governments. The thing we need now is not weapons, but to understand each other.
- Atsushi Kawaguchi

First of all, peace means no war. Secondly, all people in the world live friendly together. And they smile, enjoy their lives every day.
- Kanako Enoyama

I think with peace all people can live with smile and be happy. As long as a weapon exists in the world, peaceful days don't come. I wish for the day when weapons don't exist on the earth to come.
- Momoko Namba

If war disappeared, could we be a paradise? I don't think so. Japan has no war, but I don't think Japan is a happy and peaceful country. If all people loved all living things, peace could appear.
- Takahashi Arare

Peace is that everyone can live in happiness. To live in happiness, war must stop. And people need to understand each other. We should respect the persons who agree and disagree with us. People must not hurt each other.
- Sachie Nakayama

Speech by the Mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico

August 9, 1995

Good evening and "konban wa" to our special visitors. I welcome the children's Peace Statue and the people, young and old, who were inspired to create it. I know the struggle you went through to have it placed in Los Alamos and I agree that would have been the most appropriate place. But it seems some people there find it hard to accept that peace belongs to everyone. It's not left wing or right wing, nor is it owned by a military establishment or peace activists. Peace and reconciliation are the right and responsibility of everyone. Having this wonderful monument in Los Alamos could have helped people understand the truth in a simple and beautiful way. It seems that sometimes kids are more grown up than grown-ups. Anyway, today is Nagasaki Day, the 50th anniversary of the last day an atomic bomb was used to kill people. I join with you in hoping that 50, 100 and 1000 years from now, it will still be the last day for such a terrible tragedy.

What would a solid month of daily peace events look like? Here's an example from Albuquerque, New Mexico as described in Masumi Ikeda's article on pgs. 10-11. Why not try these out in your school?

Return to "The Children's Peace Statue and My English Class" by Masumi Ikeda.

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