Introduction
The Student Movement for the Culture of Peace (SMCP) hosted a dialogue event under the theme of “Culture of Peace: Peace as Action” on December 7th, 2023 at Soka University of America. The event explored the interconnections between the culture of peace and diverse topics; participants discussed the possible ways to embody the culture of peace in daily life. The event began with a presentation on the “Culture of Peace,” followed by two small group discussions, and the activity of drawing images of peace on stickers. The event was concluded with closing remarks by the club president Haruka Nakata.
Topics of Discussion
The SMCP understands the culture of peace as the embodiment of the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that generate peace in our daily lives. In this event, SMCP prepared ten different topics that participants might be interested in to find a connection with the culture of peace.
These ten topics were as follows:
1. Environmental Issues
2. War, Conflict, and Global Citizenship
3. Nuclear Disarmament
4. Technology Development
5. Education
6. Human Rights and Inequality
7. Economic Development and Poverty
8. Religion and Philosophy
9. Self-esteem and Friendship
10. Language, Literature, Music, and Art
The participants joined two rounds of 20-minute discussions based on their interests. Here, I will introduce three groups that had profound dialogues on the interconnections between their topics and the culture of peace.
War, Conflict, and Global Citizenship Group
The War, Conflict, and Global Citizenship Group had a deep, thorough discussion on current events, particularly on what is now happening in Gaza. Each group member opened up their honest feelings, such as hopelessness that they could not create better changes in the world. However, through the discussion, each person was able to express how they individually would practice a culture of peace, such as raising awareness of the current conflict in Gaza, enabling more people to know about it. Another way to embody the culture of peace is to have dialogues with people who have different views. To create a culture of peace is to accept everyone and find ways to unite. Each person in the group agreed that a culture of peace does not mean changing the world, but changing their community as a start.
Education Group
In the discussion on education, group members recognized both the positive and negative ways that education can shape the culture of peace. Several students brought up history education and its influence in forming the frame of mind about people in other countries. Teaching a partial view of history causes ignorance of different historical narratives, leading to extreme nationalism or a lack of compassion toward citizens of other countries. However, we can only extend sympathy to others through mutual understanding by overcoming differences. Education plays an essential role in recognizing the presence of others and making efforts to find a way for each person to contribute to a more peaceful society. Depending on its purpose, education can make a positive or a negative impact on communities. Therefore, what we can do as students in our daily lives is to ponder our purpose of learning constantly and set it to expand our perspectives for a contributive life by not focusing only on our goals or self-development. Furthermore, through efforts to build a community that embodies a culture of peace within educational institutions, we learn what a peaceful community looks like and how we care about each other, not as an abstract idea but as an actual example. Such experiences gained through education foster people who embody and create a culture of peace.
Economic Development and Poverty Group
The Economic Development and Poverty Group members discussed how economic development contributes to the promotion of peace. The members understood that some conflicts are caused by the unfair pursuit of economic profits. One participant argued that economic growth can contribute to domestic peace, but not to world peace. This is because economic development can bring wealth to only specific countries, not the whole world. The participant asserted that economic competition between countries could bring conflict to the world. Therefore, it is important to have dialogue between different countries and to connect them through various fields of culture, such as music, sports, and literature.
Activity
At the end of the event, the participants enjoyed drawing images of peace on stickers while reflecting on what they discussed. These stickers will play a role in reminding the participants of the genuine dialogue they had for peace.
Conclusion
While peace can be defined broadly, the culture of peace values our daily actions to strengthen peace in society through dialogues to understand the people in front of us. Realizing how peace and academic fields are interconnected can broaden our views and energize our passion to contribute to peace-building. In our event, we also discussed friendship as a foundation for a peaceful society, which explains how we can create a peaceful society by building friendships. Being aware that peace exists in our daily actions can enhance our commitment to peace. The Student Movement for the Culture of Peace (SMCP) will continue to spread the student movement of embodying the culture of peace and fulfilling the mission of Soka University of America, which is to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life.
