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Dr. Mushanokoji's speech at IIPE, on Aug. 15th

武者小路公秀さん、スピーチ
IIPE 2012年8月15日、国立女性教育会館にて

英字起こし: 木村真理子、英文修正: 角田尚子
人名確認: 浅川和也、プルーフリーディング: つのだ他

以下の英文は、まだご本人の確認を得ていません。しかし、8月15日になされたスピーチであり、いまの状況の中で、とても示唆に富んだ内容であると思うので、訂正を加えつつ、共有したいと思います。For Your Eyes Only.

Dr. Musyanokoji Kinhide’s speech at IIPE 15th Aug.2012

Thank you very much. I am two years younger than Asakawa-san’s father. So I am 82, still not so senior. But I am senior enough to remember the war and before the war, to the Olympic game in Berlin and Hitler and our cooperation between the Axis powers, which for me is a kind of family guilt feeling. But I would like to thank first for the apology from the side of American people about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

I must tell you that I was working for UN University and my lecture, Dr. Soedjatmoko, from Indonesia told me he was presenting the toast to his student when he heard about nuclear bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because that was the end of the Japanese fascist domination in Indonesia and I am aware of that aspect, I don’t think the nuclear bomb justified , justified that it is against Japanese emperor, but not against people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

I would also like to mention that in the present text one expression, I am actually convinced of the important of Japanese people to recognize the rights of peoples around the world to live in peace, free from fear and wants. And then there, this is considered to be a pacifist statement, but it is not pacificist but it is anti-colonialist. It is Japanese people apologizing for having violated the right of peoples live in peace, by invading the countries and colonizing them. So this is actually first statement in the world, I suppose, which is officially formulating the fact that colonialism is against human rights. So we Japanese have learned, or should have learned the lesson that we invaded wrongly our neighboring countries. And if we did so and we still can do so, if we accept the fact that colonialism is bad, and sides with anti-colonialism countries, then the Japanese apologies can be trustworthy. Otherwise I don’t think I myself as a Japanese will not feel confident about our apologies.

And this is where it was very important that the occupation forces added the term. The idea to recognize the right to live in peace was the idea from Japanese Prime Minister Shidehara. But to that, the occupation armies added “free from fear and wants”. It was very important because now Japan is not creating fear, but it is creating poverty by its economic expansion. So this is very important for us to keep this idea.

And I was ask to talk as a senior scholar, and I may tell you about this right to live in peace. It is a materializing a concept of human security. I could talk about human security and human security education. But I will not talk about it. I could also talk about how I came to know Betty Reardon in already 40 years ago I think. It was 1972 I was working at world council of churches in a very strange institution called the “SODEPACS”. It was not producing a source. It was an Ecumenical Commission on Social Development and Peace. SODEPA. There was a commission to organize a meeting on the women’s role in peace education. I presented a plan which was rejected very correctly. Because I have names of people in it. There was a talk that a meeting of women should not be decided by men which I fully agree. So I just gave a free sheet which say general assembly first, at the room such and such, and then four workshops then again a plenary, and I did not give any title and the names in the program, that was accepted. I went to negotiar, at negotier I met Elise Borden who I already met a year ago, this is where I met for the first time with Betty Reardon. This is how I came to know Betty Reardon and her concern about peace education together with gender issues. I may talk about it but I will not talk about it either. I will just come back to present and will go back to the past again.

In the present here in Japan we have two major violation to the right of people to live in peace. One is around here especially north-part of Japan. It is the way Japanese government is treating victims of nuclear explosion. It is not taking their welfare and security primarily. Japanese government want first to reorganize Japanese economy therefore, not to stop the nuclear plants and to reactive them. This is the one they side actually to both on fear and also on wants, because it is emerging, widening the gap between the rich and poor in Japan.

And the second one is in Okinawa. In Okinawa’s People are fighting against American bases which are demolishing the ecosystem of Okinawa, but also creating constant insecurity especially gender insecurity in Okinawa archipelago. In terms of this, too and the may be we can add to it New York 99% people are acting there. This is a third aspect of the crisis in which we are living.

And there I would like to mention something which I should not, but I will do it as a senior. Especially I will tell you frankly, maybe, I am not interested in peace education. I am interested in Education. I am interested in Peace. But actually education for peace is, can be very narrowly interpretated. And I think I would to talk to you about “e-du-cation”. Not about education for anything else than change. We are already in a world where we need to change the situation where everything is crumbling down and have to go to beyond create something new. And this is where “edu-cation” is education. It is ex ducere, to something which is hidden in the mind of the people. And what is hidden in the mind of the people is not peace or development or, human rights whatever ecology. It is just a wish to live in a better world, in a more secure world. And this is where the task which we have to take up, is, for peace, yes, but it is not about education for peace. It is education education education. It is to take to have the people what is in people in mind and unconsciously hidden to take it out in Socratic way. And then this is education which we should have.

Now I have a friend in York University, Toronto, Canada, Stephen Gill, who wrote recently very interesting piece, mentioning imperial common sense. Now everything is it some according to something which is agree by everybody to be common sense. But this imperialism common sense is a colonialism common sense. It is common sense that global economy you cannot go away from it and you should accept it.
And the Steven Gills shows in this recent article, that we have to go beyond imperial common sense. In other to go beyond imperial common sense here. It is my idea we need to go to people’s common sense. It is to unearth, people’s common sense in order to delearned to forget about all what we have learned about imperial common sense.

And probably that is the path we have to go, and there I have tell you I am old enough to have work together with Paulo Freire in Geneva. And what I learned from him is the consciousous form(?). It is a conscientizaion. Consciousness building idea. And it is, just tell you, alphabetization that you have to learn to write. That’s education also. But when you go about peace conscientization type of alphabetization, when you have a “c”, you have a picture of two houses. Since “c” is used in casa. Now casa means a big landlord house. But a casa also means a shattle, very small dirty place of landless peasants. And the question is to unearth among the landless peasants the awareness that this gap you use this term “casa”, thinking that it’s natural. But that’s imperial common sense. People common sense is to see there is two different casas. Then that is what you have to unlearn. We have to unlearn the idea that the Casa is casa is casa, no difference between bigger or small houses. This is a one thing.

Second thing which I would like to also mention in connection with my seniority, is that I worked in UN University. I tried to implement the ideas proposed by Secretary General of the time, who had already retired, U Thant, who in a 1969 proposed creation of UN University, international university within the UN. His idea was beautiful and completely forgotten. Because it was beautiful.

But it was in 1969, just during or after the student uprising. You have student uprising in China, You have student uprising in California for different reasons, but you have also student uprising in Europe in different places like Japan also we have our own student uprising.
And what was the different between U Thant and ,maybe you should not say, including present Secretary General of today, U Thant had a vision. His vision was that the world was now rapidly changing from Eurocentric view to more pluralistic world. And UN should be able to cease to be just Eurocentric institution. And so in order to do so, U Thant wanted to have this international university in the UN, not to train (of teach), but rather to learn from young people about the different civilizational messages in different parts of the world, through not old people, then I was still young, and I am old one, you should forget about old ones, so you should not listen to me anyway.
Just tell you U Thant’s idea was that you should learn about Chinese message from the red guards. And the American message, not from Nixon, but from students in uprising in the University of California, different campuses. This idea was it is “edu-cation” not for peace, it is not education for the people themselves, education a kind of common learning process, which is hopefully going to change the UN. So it is transformative process. It is started by “edu-cation”. And I think that is the message was a not very well appreciated by my colleagues in Japan and United States. Some supporters were in Japan, but not so many, there also United States but not in the American government.

And so, there was another alternative hidden plan to make the UN University are no rich countries’ UNESCO. Because UNESCO was dominated by the third world in Paris, in replacing it, they wanted to build UNU as an American Japan center, rich man’s educational place for the third world intellectuals could serve the interest of multi-national cooporation.

So that is where my second remark is relate to U Thant’s idea was not to think of education here peace there and linkage of something. He wanted to restart a process, historical transformative process by mobilizing putting together the ideas and the aspirations of the people, who through young interactional who would express their common sense. That is second kind of example about how I believe that education in a world in transformation has to take place.

And recently last year in Dakar, there was a world social forum where Immanuel Wallersteine mentioned now the world is the rapidly changing from a world, it could be formulated to as a world, based on western universalism, and from the western universalism he wanted the world social forum to develop a new approach which is not Eurocentric, and which accepts pluralism of universality.
And this is where I will stop, I’m not telling you what kind of universality is important, because first frankly I don’t know and even if I knew I would not tell you, because we should find it ourselves. So my remarks are not very remarkable.
Defining peace education, education as such in this changing world. But I hope I have just given you some ideas from old man, just saying Sayonara. Thank you.
by eric-blog | 2012-09-21 11:18 | ☆よりよい質の教育へBQOE
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