スクリプトは事前提出されたものですので、ビデオの音声とは異なる場合があります。

Peace and Communication

Hasegawa Beni (Kurume National College of Technology)

How do you feel when you hear the word "war"? It made me feel just terrible when I was little. I didn't want to read or even see any books about war for that reason. Now I think that my attitude was wrong.

In Kurume City, children study about war and peace in elementary school on August 6th. When I was in elementary school, we sang songs for peace and watched movies about war. I sometimes got bored with these lessons. But my ideas about war are gradually changing.

I went on school trips to Nagasaki and Okinawa when I was in elementary and junior high school. There we listened to stories about Genbaku, the atomic bombs, and Chijyousen, land battles. The stories were told by people who actually experienced the war, and what they experienced was beyond my imagination. People had their parents, brothers and sisters killed before their very eyes. In the ground battles, people were told not to allow themselves to be captured by the enemy, and a lot of people took their own lives before being caught. The atomic bombs snuffed out many precious lives in a matter of seconds. All the narrators said "I wish I could forget my memories of the war. But we have to tell how horrible war is to young generations for their future." Then I thought "We have to listen to them. I shouldn't turn my eyes away from the war."

After I got into high school, I came to think about war more carefully. I went to hear lectures and attended study sessions about war experienced by people in various countries –China, Korea and so on. I heard not only what the enemies did to Japanese people but also what the Japanese did to others. For example, I heard what the Koreans think about Japanese invasions and comfort women. I was also told the Chinese view of the so-called "Nanking Massacre", in which they say that 300,000 civilians were murdered by the Japanese army. At first I was shocked, but I gradually became interested in how Japan is perceived by other countries. I realized that there still were a lot of things about war that I did not know, though I had attended the classes about war and peace at schools. I found it very important to listen to ideas of people in various countries.

Then I found an exchange program between Kurume City and its sister city, Modesto in California. This program provides young people in both cities with an opportunity to visit each other. First, students from Modesto come to Kurume and stay with their host families for two weeks. Then, Japanese students go to Modesto and stay there for two weeks. Usually, Japanese students stay with families of students who they hosted. I joined the program in 2010. My family hosted two students, who became my new brothers. Because they stayed with us in August, I took them to a peace gathering. This gathering is held every year. There were plays, choruses, and readings by people of various ages. Even though my American guests could hardly understand Japanese, they were moved by the performances of people, from little children to retired people, who are seriously thinking about war and peace. And tears came to their eyes. They said to me "Thank you for taking us to this gathering. We could rethink about war. We must make a peaceful world." They said that they had studied about war in history classes or heard stories from their grandparents, but they had not been told much about the atomic bombs. Then I realized that people who live in different countries and cultures have the same wish. We all want to make a peaceful world.

Now I think that international communication can change the world. If you have friends from overseas, can you fight in a war against their countries? I could never do that. If we make friends with people from all over the world, world peace would not be a mere dream. I can't talk about war and peace with a person in our first meeting, but I will be able to hear various ideas from various people if they become my friends. That will help us to understand each other. My greatest wish is to make the world peaceful. Little by little, I am taking action.