Monday, May 30, 2016

Kids' Guernica at Nakateshima Elementary School in Osaka, Japan



May 28, 2016

Flying Peace from Nakateshima Elementary School in Osaka, Japan

The sixth grade students learned a lot about war and peace, hearing a story of war from an old person who had an actual experience of war and visiting Hiroshima as their school excursion. They realized that they were living in a very peaceful world which they took a granted while many people were suffering from conflicts in some places of this world.   

Last September, each of them made her/his own poster on peace and wrote an essay about her/his wish for peace. In October, they went to Hiroshima and visited many historical places related to the tragedy of atomic bombing. In December, they started making their Kids’ Guernica peace painting. First, they decided to put the main idea of seven representative students in the center of the canvas and surround it with each student’s peace poster. The painting expresses their seven wishes for peace.

Their school symbol mark shows their school’s commitment to creating a peaceful world. A rainbow as a way to peace. An uncomplete puzzle of world map and letters of “PEACE” is a wish to bring peace into this world which is not yet peaceful. Various pigeons trying to place some pieces of puzzle show cooperation for building a happy world. People with their arms on each other’s shoulders also represent a necessity of cooperation of all the people in the world. A phoenix with a world map is a symbol of permanent peace. As the last seventh message, peace posters created by all the sixth grade students and pigeons express there are various ideas of peace and the importance of working together.

Finally, each of their wishes for peace became one in their wonderful bright picture. They could have a good opportunity to unite all of them and share their wishes for peace through this project.