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An Education That Fosters Hope Analysis

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An Education That Fosters Hope Analysis
“Imagine”: An Education that Fosters Hope
(Original)

Risa Sato
(Age 16, Japan)
International School of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo

President Obama visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial last month, 71 years after the first atomic bomb detonated in Hiroshima. The visit replayed over and over on the news and, at least for me, it was a flag of hope that marks how far we have come in rebuilding after World War II.

Growing up in Japan, I’ve listened to numerous accounts of the atomic bomb, each unimaginable and painful. Every year, on August 6th, I watch Japan come together as a nation to remember the tragedy. Even when I was too little to understand the meaning of this crime, I’ve still somehow known how profoundly scarring the event was for the Japanese …show more content…
Though causes and players have varied throughout, Afghanistan has been at war since 1978 and for many of its people, the world around them has been tearing each other apart for as long as they can remember. My ignorance, however, left me distanced from this unfathomable fact until I recently met a boy from Afghanistan named Salim.

When I mentioned that I was from Japan, Salim furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “Japan? How is Hiroshima?”

Why Hiroshima? I wondered. “It’s nice... I’m planning to visit next …show more content…
His hands, holding my phone, shook slightly and his eyes grew wider. “Hiroshima? This is Hiroshima? It has recovered!” Salim started to laugh with joy. “I must visit Hiroshima one day. I must tell everyone! I must tell everyone that Hiroshima is a beautiful city now. Japan has rebuilt so quickly!” A boy from a wartorn country found out for the first time that a city, which too had been bombed and injured, had recovered and grew back stronger.

According to Salim, his school textbooks back in Afghanistan still showed the pictures of Hiroshima after the bombing as a picture of Hiroshima today, explaining why he was confused. Of course, our hope is that students around the world will have access to quality education materials. However, this was not the essence of what Salim had taught me. An education must inspire hope; In other words, a teacher must be able to teach her student how to imagine a world of peace and
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