Akamatsu Atsuko
Takamori High School
1253 Kuga-Machi
Iwakuni-shi, Yamaguchi-ken
Japan 742-0333
TEL: 081827823234, FAX: 081827823247
Email: [email protected].
Takamori High School website: http://www.takamori-h.ysn21.jp/
November 11, 2008
A Project of Exchanging Peace Messages
Dear Sirs or Madams,
I am a teacher of English in Japan. I have been teaching students aged 16 to 18 in senior high schools for 21 years. I live in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which is located in the western end of the main island of Japan. Yamaguchi Prefecture is next to Hiroshima Prefecture and I live in Iwakuni City, which is close to Hiroshima Prefecture, so I have had many chances to visit Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima City since I was a very young girl. I have been thinking about how we can make peace without terrible weapons like the atomic bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I learned not only about how terrible atomic bombs were but also about how cruel people from any country can be in wars. After learning from books, lectures, documentary movies, museums, and directly from the people who have been suffering from wars, I realized the importance that we should communicate more with people who have different ideas to share compassion and make a peaceful world on this precious planet in this vast universe.
Hatred, greed, and discrimination seems to be a huge cliff in front of us all, but in order to make one of the waves that can erode it, I started a project of exchanging peace messages among students around the world. I think we need to strengthen the power of the waves to change the world by helping as many people as possible understand that ignorance and indifference are the causes to weaken their internal power. I think we can awaken one another by exchanging ideas to make our world a better place to live together. I believe that the essence of education is not for getting good grades and entering famous schools, but for cultivating ourselves to express love for everyone and take actions so that we can improve everyone’s quality of life.
My students read books about wars, starvation, or peace. Some students heard about their relatives’ experiences during World War II. They wrote about what they thought about the books or stories, and added their own ideas for what we should do for peace.
Would you please introduce these messages to your students? If they send their own peace messages to my email address or by postal mails to the address on the top of this mail, I will introduce them to my students and the other students who have sent and will send their messages to us. I received replies from Korean students and introduced them in my classes this month. Their messages are amazing. I’d like to share their messages with you, too.
I have already received a permission to write a report about this project in a book which will be published next summer. It is a book about teaching English published by The Association of High School Teachers of English in Yamaguchi Prefecture. It will be delivered to all the English teachers in this prefecture. I hope many other teachers will read your students’ and my student’s peace messages and introduce them to their students. This project will have more power to influence more people if some other teachers cooperate in it.
I am going to write a report about education using a school library in a book which will be published by The Association of School Librarians and delivered to all the school librarians in Yamaguchi Prefecture. I hope that, by reading your peace messages, more teachers will help students read books on peace and other important social issues and express their own opinions about them.
Today, I found a newspaper article about a project to send letters to invite the next President of the United States to Hiroshima. I thought it is more than a coincidence to find it today, so let me introduce the project. A newspaper company called “Chugoku Shinbun” is one of the biggest newspaper companies in Chugoku District in Japan and its main office is in Hiroshima City. It often reports news about the peace movement. It has a series of reports about how to live in a peaceful world. It is written and edited by 20 teenagers who applied for the work. The page is called “Hiroshima-koku,” which means “Hiroshima-Country.” They say it is a virtual country where all the children have lots of hope to live and that it has no boundary. You can find their website at http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/hiroshima-koku/
A third-grade junior high student, Iwata Minako, one of the editors of “Hirosima-koku” wrote;
How about writing a letter to the next President Obama? It doesn’t matter how old you are. We will welcome letters from anyone, from children to adults.
Have you thought, “I know it is important to abolish nuclear weapons, but I don’t know what to do” or “I would like to feel the sense of achievement”? Writing a letter seems to be very easy, but might be one of the good solutions for you.
I think now it is a good chance to send letters to the new President of the U.S.A.. Would you express what you think in a letter and send it to “Hiroshima-koku”? Your letter might encourage the President to learn about the reality of the atomic bombed cities. It might be your letter that will change the world.
If you would like to join this project, please send your email or postal mail with your address, name, name of your school, grade, (if you have graduated from schools, your occupation and age), telephone number, and whether you are a survivor of the atomic bombs to [email protected] or
Chugoku Shinbun Kodomo Shinbun Henshubu
7-1 Dobashi-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi,
Japan 730-8677
If your peace message reaches “Hiroshima-koku,” by the end of November, they can send it to the next President of the U.S.A..
I hope exchanging peace message with many people around the world can be of some help to
realize the peace of the world, though each step is very small. I just don't want to give up,
thinking "Oh, rich people and politicians start wars and we cannot do anything about it." I’d like to think your and my students might become very rich and have great impact on people’s decisions. They don’t have to be rich to influence people, though. Some of them might become presidents or Diet members to decide whether we should really start a war some day!
We elect politicians in democratic countries. The more people realize the importance of
thinking about keeping peace, the more politicians who make efforts to keep peace will be elected by them.
Many students who wrote the messages will graduate from my school on March 1st next year. If I receive replies to these messages by the end of the second week of January, I can introduce them in my classes.　But if it takes more time for your students to write their messages, it is all right to send them later. I would like to introduce the messages to other students the next school year starting from April.
I am looking forward to sharing good ideas to encourage everyone to be optimistic about the future of the Earth. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Sincererly,
Akamatsu Atsuko[color=green][/color]