Remembering Japan

Dear Diary,

This happy face, an antique Noh theater mask I got in Japan in 2007, greets me every day.  I brought back several antiques from that trip but this little face is the one I chose as my "remembrance piece" from the trip.

The people of Japan were so friendly and welcoming.  I was there with other educators from round the US as part of a Fulbright exchange.  One weekend I spent with a family outside of Nagasaki.  He took be to their "ground zero" and it was such an emotional experience.  His dad was in the Japanese army and mine in the US army...enemies just a generation ago but here we stood side by side. 

I asked him if he hated the US for the bombing.  Nearly half his family was killed by it.  He told me no, it was a time of war after all and they had drawn us into the war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  I immediately thought of Gandhi's famous quote, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."  For the children of former enemies to be standing together, comforting each other, was something I will never forget as long as I live.  I pray that somehow the world can somehow find some peace in 2015.

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends.  You talk to your enemies.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta