The 6th International Conference of Museums for Peace Starting This Weekend in Japan

Hi colleagues and friends in Vancouver and around the world,

From October 6th to 11th, I will be attending the 6th International Conference of Museums for Peace held in Kyoto and Hiroshima, hosted by three organizations - Kyoto Museums for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto University of Art and Design, and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The Conference website is:http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/mng/er/wp-museum/conference/index.html

Here are the conference schedule and special interest group sessions,for your information. I will be presenting in two sessions, Session1-2-C 'Citizens Creating "Spaces for Peace,"' in which I will be sharing a panel with Yumi Kikuchi, and Session 1-3-C Peace Sites and Peace Tours,in which a Ritsumeikan Univ. group and I will be presenting on joint US/Japan/Canada trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Peace Boat's Shinsaku Nohira will be presenting in the same session.

I would also like to draw your attention to a presentation by Misako Iwashita, who gave a moving presentation on her peace education curriculum in March this year in Vancouver, in the Session 1-2-A, and also one by Yeonghwan Kim of Centre for Peace Museum in Korea, who gave several talks in Vancouver in April 2007. There will also be a session2-1-B with a focus on the Japanese war-time aggression in Asia, such as one by Norio Serizawa of Chukiren Peace Museum and another by YasunoriTakazane of Oka Masaharu Memorial Peace Museum in Nagasaki. Chukiren is an association that promotes awareness and education on the peace work by the former Japanese soldiers who committed war crimes in China. You must be familiar with their work if you have attended the Miracle of Fushun workshop by Tatsuo Kage and his colleagues at the 2006 World Peace Forum and the VSA9 event with the same title in November 2006. The sex slavery issue will be covered in the Session 2-3-B by Women's Active Museum in Japan and the House of Sharing in Korea.

In Hiroshima, we will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and willbe welcomed by Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, the director of Hiroshima Peace and Culture Foundation Steve Leeper, and will hear a testimony of a hibakusha Akihiro Takahashi.

These are just a glimpse of the wide range of speakers and activities of this Conference and I did not even get to mention any of the keynote speeches or the participation of like-minded colleagues from peace museums all over the world. I will organize a report-back event back in Vancouver some time in November or December. If you have any questions or any information you would like to share, please email/phone me.

Lots of love, and peace for all,

Satoko