Last week at school my classmates and I met to share our summer applied field experience (AFE) experiences. We all prepared presentations that highlighted our summer experiences. Because I was away back in the states last month--just after most of my classmates returned from their AFE's--it was my first chance to really listen to what all of them did. From what they shared, each of us had a great time and learned a lot during our few months away from ICU.
Preparing for last week's presentation and my Rotary AFE report also gave me a chance to reflect on and synthesize my time at Peace Boat over the summer. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), I wrote during the summer about some of those thoughts here in my blog. For my regular blog readers, many of you know that I spent my time at Peace Boat here in Tokyo, a large Japanese non-governmental organization (NGO) that raises awareness about and the importance of peace education to Japanese citizens. Through its global peace voyages and various projects, Peace Boat addresses a number of issues, which include peace, human rights, sustainable development and the environment. While there, I mainly focused my work on its Global Article 9 Campaign to Abolish War that promotes keeping Japan’s pacifist constitution through Article 9, consolidating pacifist constitution values domestically, and spreading those values to other countries in the world through similar constitutional adoption. Overall, I was very happy with my experience at Peace Boat this past summer because I was able to meet and work with peace activists who are doing important work on this issue. The experience also has had a meaningful impact on the development of my own academic research, in which my thesis work has become more focused on the topic of peace constitutions and their regional impact on pacific relations.
JRG
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