Peace is friendship building

Posted by JoAnn Sims on September 10, 2011
Categories: Japan , Peace

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The World Friendship Center (WFC) in Hiroshima, Japan celebrated its 46th birthday on August 6, 2011. Barbara Reynolds, the founder of WFC, strongly believed that if we could foster friendships between the peoples of the world the horror of the dropping of the Atomic bomb would not be repeated ever to any people of the world. A key to Peace is building friendships worldwide and developing those friendships as well as fostering connections. Forty-six years ago that was a goal. How does that goal play out today?

J. R. is a professor at a local University in Hiroshima. The goal of WFC resonates true in his life. That reality is why J. R. serves on the Board of Directors at the World Friendship Center. He was born in Australia and later his family moved to London. He taught English in Japan at the YMCA and met a lovely Japanese girl who would become his wife. His father was so upset because he had been in WWII and fought the Japanese. He was not pleased that his son was planning to marry one. Through many letters and phone calls inviting Jim’s father to meet his fiancé, his father finally agreed to just meet her. The meeting led to several visits and then to accept his fiancé as a friend. When it came time for his father to visit Japan where J. R. and his wife decided to live, again he refused. The old memories and mistrusts of the war loomed in his mind. Finally he did visit and discovered his now daughter-in-law was truly lovely as well as her family and all the others he met. His hatred of Japan, the fear of the “other” truly melted away by the generosity and genuine kindness he experienced in Hiroshima. Genuine friendship changed mistrust, hatred, and fear into connections of kindness, acceptance, and love. Peace grew in J. R’s family through friendship across national boundaries.

Coming to Hiroshima for me was an unexpected opportunity. My colleague and I had just presented a paper on the City of Hiroshima whose motto is, “ A City of Peace,” before I arrived in Japan. Hoping to continue the research by doing follow up interviews and broadening our data I wondered how I might begin to accomplish the task. I received e-mail as the Volunteer Director of the World Friendship Center (WFC) from the Chairperson of the Peace Culture Foundation in Hiroshima. The Peace Culture Foundation operates the Peace Memorial Museum, the International Peace Conference Center, and the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. He wanted an intern with the Peace Culture Foundation to stay at the World Friendship Center for a month, as his home-stay family was unable to host him any longer. The Chairperson visited with me at WFC. We agreed to house the intern at WFC and the intern would contact various people at the Peace Culture Foundation on my behalf. When the intern needed to return to his home, he introduced me to his contacts. As we chatted with one young woman she stated that I really needed to talk with another woman down the hall. She called and the woman agreed to meet us. We sat down to meet the woman down the hall and I explained our research. She asked questions about my colleague. She then asked his name. When I told her, she was amazed! She had been my colleague’s translator when he was working on his Doctorate several years prior. We both gasped! She immediately said she would help me in any way she could. Again, friendship across the Pacific Ocean set up new friendships and cooperation. Our friendship with one another in Hiroshima was possible through the mutual friendship of a person in Seattle, Washington USA. The World Friendship Center was the backdrop of that connection!

It was early September and two guests were enjoying conversation at breakfast in the small kitchen of the World Friendship Center. One woman was an art professor at North Carolina University who was staying at WFC while setting up an exhibition of her work at the Former Bank of Japan. The Former Bank of Japan was one of the few buildings that remained standing after the A-bomb explosion in 1945. The other woman was originally from Des Moines, Iowa and was now a librarian with the International Schools currently teaching in Seoul, Korea. They chatted about Korea and their hometowns in the USA. All of a sudden the conversation became quite intense. It turned out that the librarian’s gentleman neighbor in Des Moines, Iowa was the favorite Uncle of the artist’s husband. They both dearly loved the gentleman. From that moment forward the two women were fast friends and spent several days sharing the sights of Hiroshima together. From Korea to North Carolina new friends were made in Hiroshima during breakfast at WFC!

Hibakusha is the Japanese word for survivor of the Atom Bombing. When my husband and I agreed to become Volunteer Directors of the World Friendship Center (WFC), I was preparing for a conference on Peace and Global Understanding to be held at Seattle University. My research colleague and I were attempting to pull together a luncheon panel about WWII & Hiroshima. I called a friend who was a Japanese American who had been interned during WWII to be part of the panel. He quickly agreed. He then asked if I would like to have a Hibakusha on the panel as well. I readily agreed. My friend contacted a Hibakusha living in Seattle and he too agreed to be part of the panel. The third person on the panel was a journalist who had been to Hiroshima interviewing Hibakusha. The panel came together easily. The panelists told compelling and amazing stories of personal courage, compassionate reasons for a peaceful future, and their desire to connect with as many people as possible to build bridges of friendship across the world so that the horrors of WWII would not be repeated. At the close of the luncheon I shared how, the reputation and goal of WFC had opened doors of friendship with a Hibakusha, a Japanese American, and a reporter even before I had arrived in Hiroshima. Building bridges of friendship is an active and living goal of the World Friendship Center.

Peace is building friendships one at a time among peoples of the world.

JoAnn Sims
Volunteer Co-director of World Friendship Center
Hiroshima, Japan

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