2021.08.08
The August 7, 2021 Peace Forum was the 13th anniversary of Peace Forum. Peace Forum began because of the work of Ms. Hiromi Peterson. She was a Japanese teacher at Punahou School in Hawaii. After writing the Japanese language textbook, Adventures in Japanese, she started the Hiroshima Peace Scholarship, which brings students to Hiroshima to learn about peace. In the beginning, just 3 schools gathered for a small meeting: Punahou School, Eishin, and Jogakuin. Ms. Peterson joined us from Hawaii as our keynote speaker for the 2021 Peace Forum.
This year, nine schools participated in an online Peace Forum: Okinawa Shogaku High School, Soka High School (Tokyo), Tamagawa Seigakuin Girls’ Junior & Senior High School (Tokyo), Kansai Soka High School (Osaka), Kansei Gakuin Senior High School (Hyogo), Eishin Junior and High School (Hiroshima), Takeda Junior & Senior High School (Hiroshima), Nagasaki Higashi High School, and Jogakuin Junior & Senior High School (High school Global Issues students).
Each school prepared slides to share online and discussed their school’s peace-related activities over the past year. Later, in online breakout rooms, students were able to meet each other, ask questions, further explain their activities, and discuss their ideas. The 2021 Peace Forum showed us all that even a global pandemic could not stop us from our efforts to further peace in the world.
Thanks to the hard work of all the participating students and teachers, we could meet online and share our hopes for a more peaceful future for all of us, everywhere.