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| Port of call Nanjing, China |
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| Participants at the Nanjing Memorial. |
Peace Boat arrived in Shanghai, China, its first
stop on the 37th World Cruise on May 5th for a two day stay. The focus
of Peace Boat's visit was a two day historical study tour to Nanjing,
where in a few weeks time at the end of 1937 the Japanese Imperial
Army killed an estimated 300,000 people in what became known as the
rape of Nanjing.The importance of Peace Boat purpose lies in the current
controversy surrounding the stubbornness of the Japanese government
to recognize its past and take meaningful steps to heal historical
wounds. For two days 79 participants visited memorials, heard testimonies
and made substantial progress in atonement and reconciliation between
the people of China and Japan. |
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| Ryutaro Honda, center, and Nanjing Massacre survivors, right. |
Peace Boat guest Ryutaro Honda, then a 25 year old soldier yanked from a newspaper job into the Japanese military, was sent to Nanjing as part of the occupying force in 1939, where he experienced evil for which he made absolutely clear there were no excuses, then or now. At the Nanjing Memorial, in one of the most substantial ceremonies of recognition and reconciliation since the war, Mr. Honda opened up to the Chinese people and came to grips with his past as much as could be possible, an act of healing he had been working towards for decades. |
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| International Student Sonja from Yugoslavia, holding peace cranes at a ceremony with local university students. |
Seeing the memorial and ceremony gave us all a much
clearer and deeper understanding of why the history debate is so deeply
offensive to China and other Asian countries. Hearing testimony from
survivors brought a wave of emotion and tears to the eyes of many.
Drizzling rain seemed an appropriate environment for seeing the half-excavated
mass grave over which the Nanjing Memorial stands. We understood,
from experience now, the importance of people and NGO taking initiative
and responsibility for reconciliation where government has failed,
a lesson we find more and more to be applicable to issues and conflicts
around the world.
For International Student Jenny Hampton from Northern Ireland, seeing
the Nanjing Memorial and hearing the testimonies of victims and perpetrators
alike reawakened her awareness of the importance of the Bloody Sunday
Tribunal in Derry, Northern Ireland and the importance of digging
out the truth and progressing down the road to reconciliation for
both victim and perpetrator, no matter what the cost. |
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| There is nothing like taking in the spectacular lights of a big city from a boat. Leaving Shanghai. |
Our experience here taught us that if the history debate has become banal or tiresome as Japanese press will often report, it is because we have not understood the reality of the past. Returning to the scene of the crimes, as it goes, has opened our eyes. Coming here as individuals and an organization working to build bridges where governments have failed, and the success we met, has shown us first hand how to build that peaceful future. |
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| Peace Boat's 37th Voyage |
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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