WFC News
Yu-ai Friendship
Newsletter of the World Friendship Center, NPO
American PAX report
Youko Mimura
I applied to join American PAX at the end of June. It was privilege for me to be chosen as one of the participants and to have such a precious experience. We visited four places and met many people who welcomed us. I think that the warm welcome was only thanks to the years of relationship cultivated between each person or group and the WFC.
I deeply appreciate the organizers and WFC committee members for working kindly to preparing our trip and give accurate information. I also thank each host family for accepting us, and making delicious breakfasts!
The first place we visited was Elgin, northwest of Chicago. A director of this church, Dan Mcfadden hosted us and gave us a guided tour here. The headquarters of Brethren Church is here, their publishing department is here, too. The book “Sea-going Cowboys ” was published here.
One of the works they undertake here is Brethren Volunteer Service. After a couple weeks of training, volunteers are dispatched all over the place, in the USA and overseas. The WFC co-directors, Dannie and Barb were also sent to Hiroshima from here.
In Illinois Wesleyan University, we participated in the International Peace Conference, held over International Peace Day on September 20, 21, and 22. Josie, one of the interns at the WFC last June, was a leading organizer for this conference. We visited several classes from the first day soon after we arrived there. In each class, after we introduced ourselves, students asked us some questions related to Hiroshima and the atomic bomb. It was a good chance for us to know how they think about A-bombing. In this university, we saw that students learned seriously about Hiroshima. But those questions were not so easy for me to answer smoothly without preparation. I felt sorry about my poor English.
My presentation here was held from 6.30 in Turlfer room, with dinner and a small panel discussion. Hank Campbell was the following speaker panelist who works to make bridges between Jewish Israelis and Arab Palestinians. When I was nervous, my PAX pals sat in the front row and said they were there for me. That helped me relax. During this trip, I had a lot of experiences with the other participants – joking, singing, chatting and discussing. In my presentation, I talked about the WFC and some victims of the A-bomb in my husband’s family.
In Wilmington, we visited Tanya Maus at the Peace Resource Center. In the evening we were welcomed by local people with a potluck party. I felt this community has a close relationship with college. I learned that the number of Japanese books related to nuclear here is the largest outside Japan.
At Bluffton University, director Louise Mattheu gave us a campus tour and showed us some art on the campus. I felt their strong will to convey peace through the arts. There was also a cozy library in the Peace Center, the Lion and Lamb, where schoolchildren learn about peace through the “Sadako” or “Swords to Plowshares” stories. Our presentations were held in this center. Because one of the organizers, Alice Ramseyer, announced this through the local newspaper, many people in the local community people came, as well as a few students of this university.
They seemed to learn about Hiroshima and the bomb. Most people we met through this PAX visit were relatively knowledgeable about Hiroshima. Still, though, the U.S. is one of the nations which possesses a large amount of arms, especially nuclear weapons. It might have been a small step for me to join PAX, but connecting with each other makes us stronger.
Thank you again for all the people I met in the U.S.A and the WFC.
The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts in Bluffton University
Copyright © NPO World Friendship Center 2018 All Rights Reserved
Yu-ai Friendship
Newsletter of the World Friendship Center, NPO
My Experiences with the WFC
Kaelee Parker
July 6th – August 12th, 2018
Arriving in the Rain
I landed in the Hiroshima airport on July 6th, when the city was in the midst of the torrential rain. The highways were closed, buses and trains weren’t running, and the airport hotel was completely full. Luckily, Mikiko-san and Yoshi-san helped me through this stressful venture. They were able to reserve a cottage for me, located close to the airport hotel, so that I wouldn’t have to spend the night in the airport. The cottage was meant for a family of four so it was a little big for just me, but I chose to make the best of it and relax after the long flight into Japan.
The next morning, I moved over to the airport hotel lobby. The buses were still not running and now the WiFi and phone service was down too. Even the food trucks couldn’t make it to the hotel so there wasn’t any food available. They ended up shuttling me to the airport so that I could get food and WiFi. There, I was able to contact Mikiko-san more. It looked like I’d need to stay at the airport hotel overnight. Luckily, this time, there was a room available for me. Being jetlagged, I fell asleep around 5pm that night.
Waking up around 4am the next morning, I had a lot of time without much to do.
Copyright © NPO World Friendship Center 2018 All Rights Reserved
Yu-ai Friendship
Newsletter of the World Friendship Center, NPO
Experience& mini Report of internship at WFC
Mirabelle Chen
After a week of delay of my arrival and all the hustle from my visa, I finally arrived in World Friendship Center in Hiroshima on a sunny afternoon on May 20th and began my amazing six-weeks experience.
For two weeks after my arrival, I had to skype in for my Japanese crush course at 6 am in the morning. Even though it was only a 8 weeks course, I still learnt quite some Japanese—it was worth it totally.
I absolutely loved my one-week experience at Peace Culture Village. People today talk about peace all the time, but do they really know what peace is? As an experimental community, PCV gets people into thinking about what peace actually means. Usually, there’re guests coming and going, either staying at PCV for a night or only participate in daytime works; this week, with Mr.Steven Leeper and some other directors and staffs gone, it was only me and Mary Popeo in the village–but we still had an amazing time, and I have much thank for her patience and understanding(my extreme fear of insects, nameless bugs, etc.)! Growing up in Beijing, which is a big city, I’ve barely had any chance to actually live in the countryside and there’re lots of things that are new and interesting for me: going to sleep with the sound of frogs on a summer night; waking up by the chicken and the sunlight; planting and eating our own crops for meals…everything was exciting and brand new for me.
I can’t thank WFC and Shudo University enough for giving me the incredible opportunity to join their English class. On Monday and Thursday mornings, I go there to help with their English class, and on Wednesday in the afternoon to join the English Communication and Chat Club. They are mostly freshmen students with English majors. Looking at them reminded me of myself 5 years ago in a high school classroom–a girl with poor English, too shy to speak with foreigners, always nervous when asked a question in class–and that makes me really want to try my best to help them. Also, they were the first group of younger people that I’ve met since I’ve come here. Since most people coming to the WFC are over 40, it was nice to talk to someone of my own age. Everyday it takes about 1 hour and a half to go back and forth, but I’d say the experience is totally worth the time and waking up at 6:30 in the morning. Everyone was extremely friendly, even some don’t speak perfect English and could only barely communicate—their smiles made me feel super welcomed. I’m always surprised at how fast they’re learning and how passionate they are for each class, of course one big reason was how funny and dedicated Mr. Ronald is, as a teacher and as a friend.
On the fourth weekend, I had the honor to be invited to join WFC’s board meeting. Since most of the board members don’t speak English, the meeting was mostly conducted in Japanese, and Barb was the translator for both me and Dannie. I also gave a self-introduction in Japanese which seemed to be impressive, so I’d say the Japanese crush course was actually really helpful! The meeting was conducted efficiently and it was amazing to just attend and listen to a meeting in Japanese!
I’m sure I’ll be back in Japan one day! For World Friendship Center, for all the friends I’ve made, for Okonomiyaki—my favorite food from Hiroshima, and of course, for so much more!
Copyright © NPO World Friendship Center 2018 All Rights Reserved
Intern Presentation by Mirabelle Chen
June 23(Sat) 1:30PM ～2：30PM
Place: WFC
Participation Fee: 500yen
Student: Free
I am Ziyao (Mirabelle) Chen. I was born and raised in China and am currently studying in the U.S. I’m a senior at Illinois Wesleyan University with a major in Accounting and a minor in French. 3 years ago I chose to come to Illinois Wesleyan University for its amazing accounting program, well-known professors, and small class sizes.
I’m here in Hiroshima as an intern at the the Freeman Asia Internship Program from my university. I’ve always loved to travel and to meet people from different countries. World Friendship Center is a place where people from all over the world meet and talk about peace. I am learning about the bombing in 1945, how the people dealt with that, and how they rebuilt Hiroshima into the beautiful city it is today.
Date: December 16, Saturday
Time: 1PM to 3PM
Place: WFC
Participation fee: Free
No present exchange
Program:
Peace Choir , Shin-chan’s show, Quiz,
Film:“Martin the Shoemaker”
Candle Service, etc
Please join us!