Notes from the President

A Summer of No Burdens

Aug 8, 2014

Former Vice President IMAMURA Masaharu

For people living in Japan, August is a month about war and peace. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, concluding the end of World War II and Japan’s defeat, over 10 hot days in the summer of 1945.

On August 5th the “25th East Asia Peace and Human Rights Camp” got underway at APU. This camp is held twice a year and welcomes students from APU, Ritsumeikan University and 5 universities in Korea to gather and talk about peace and human rights. The following is the talk I gave to students attending this camp…
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Here at APU, we have students from approximately 80 countries and regions around the globe, gathered on one campus to live together and learn together. Not once have serious altercations broken out between these students with regards to cultural background, religion, political beliefs or concerning the conflicts and confrontations occurring between nations in the world today. How is it possible that all of these students, and all of these cultures and differing backgrounds, are able to exist peacefully here at APU?

I think the reason lies in students putting their various differences aside, like putting them on ice almost, to live and study together as friends. Not identifying with just one country, too much. Not carrying the burden of your country on your shoulders, too much. Perhaps these are the keys to peace.

Your country, your country’s people, and you. Japan, the Japanese people, and you. Korea, the Korean people, and you. I think it’s important not to try and think of the relationship between these three things as just one entity. Don’t try and take on the role of being a certain nationality too much, or bearing the responsibilities of your country’s stance on certain things.

For example, the current generations aren’t responsible for problems that happened in the past. Just like you aren’t at fault for what happened, neither are you a victim. You weren’t there. You didn’t do it, and therefore there is no need to feel strongly in denial or as if you need to redeem these actions of the past.


The word ‘future-minded’ is often used. However, this doesn’t mean just focusing on the future while abandoning the past. Whilst we aren’t responsible in ourselves for any historical issues our country, our world, faced in the past this doesn’t mean we need to abandon our own understanding of these issues. I want all of the Japanese students to really think about why postmodern Japan started a pointless and gruesome war and invaded countries of the Asia Pacific, and why the Japanese people couldn’t stop it from happening. ‘Future-minded’ is not the road of promise and hope. In order to realize peace, the young people of Japan and Korea need to put aside their struggles and hardships and share in their determination to walk the path to a peaceful future together.

It is my hope that you will all look over Japan, South Korea and East Asia from a global perspective. For example, looking at Japan, South Korea and East Asia from the perspective of people in the Middle East, Gaza and the Ukraine. How do our views change if we look at things in light of the problems and conflicts the people in the Middle East and the Ukraine are dealing with?

In addition, as neighbors of the East, we need to put a lot of thought into the issues that we all have in common. Nuclear power, military bases, economic development, decreasing birthrates and aging populations … these are the kinds of issues we can’t just leave for the next generation to deal with. We need to think hard and strong to resolve these issues now. I think that the processes involved in resolving these issues will provide living lessons for Japan, Korea, and those other countries trying to expand their economic development.

Unfortunately the relationships between Japan, China and Korea don’t appear to hold much optimism for the future. By no means however does this imply that we should just denounce all ties with each other, political, economical, cultural and the flow of people traveling to and from our countries. If the young people of the industrialized nations of East Asia, of Japan and Korea, and even China, work together with their neighboring brothers and sisters then there is every possibility that they can generate a hybrid of new values in a variety of fields.

All of you can choose to live a life continuing to feed the competitive relationship between the countries in East Asia, or you can choose to build on your nation’s framework, striving towards development and peace, and it is my sincere hope that you will use your time at this camp to discuss this with each other.

The responsibilities that you, and I, must face are both here and now, and in the future.



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