Recipients of the 6th SAKAI Peace Contribution Award

On January 29, 2018, the Screening Committee for the SAKAI Peace Contribution Award convened. Based on the committee’s screening results report, Sakai City determined the award recipients as described below.

After an update of the existing list of nominators, including renowned intellectuals and academic institutions in Japan, 500 nominators in total were randomly selected and requested to nominate candidates.
The Screening Committee for the SAKAI Peace Contribution Award selected 12 organizations from the nominated candidates that met the award eligibility requirements in the SAKAI Peace Contribution Award Guidelines and reported the screening results to Sakai City, which determined the award recipients.

○ Representative: Mr. Michio Sakima, director
○ Background:
・1975: Mr. Michio Sakima began to collect artworks produced by various artists including Makoto Ueno, Käthe Kollwitz and Georges Rouault.　
・1983: He felt immense joy from the bottom of his heart when he learned that the artist couple Iri and Toshi Maruki were working on “Pictures of the Battle of Okinawa” .
・November 23, 1994: Opened Sakima Art Museum.
・2011: Received the 33rd Ryukyu Shimpo Activity Award.
・2014: Published a booklet titled “Creation of Peace through Art: The Path Taken by Sakima Art Museum in Okinawa” (Iwanami Booklet series).
・–Present: Mr. Sakima exhibits “Pictures of the Battle of Okinawa” painted by Iri and Toshi Maruki on a permanent basis, and holds special exhibitions each fiscal year.

Mr. Sakima opened his museum on his ancestral land that was once part of a U.S. base. The museum communicates the preciousness of peace to many young visitors through various artworks, such as “Pictures of the Battle of Okinawa” painted by the couple Iri and Toshi Maruki, the museum’s hallmark artwork, and through guided tours offered by its director.
With the number of war survivors decreasing in Japan, the museum tries to pass on the memories of the war to future generations through its overwhelming artworks and museum tours offered in the Okinawan dialect. We highly evaluate the museum as an institution that is expected to continue to promote peace education.

After Okinawa reverted to Japan in 1972, rents for U.S. military land surged. At that time I thought it was a strategy to disrupt the island-wide protests against US military bases in Okinawa. At that time I owned real estate that formed part of a U.S. military base. I thought about how I should use the money from the rent to counter the strategy. I then began to collect various paintings including those depicting the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and poor people’s lives and labor. About ten years after I began to collect artworks produced by Makoto Ueno, Käthe Kollwitz, Georges Rouault and other artists, I met the artist couple Iri and Toshi Maruki, who produced panels of paintings titled “Pictures of the Battle of Okinawa” .
Mr. and Mrs. Maruki wanted to exhibit the paintings in Okinawa. I wanted to provide a place where people could engage in quiet contemplation in Okinawa, which still faces harsh conditions. Ten years after their thoughts and mine intertwined, I opened the Sakima Art Museum on November 23, 1994.

Since the end of the Battle of Okinawa and subsequently under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, Okinawa has had a large concentration of U.S. military facilities. I thought that Okinawa, which was at the mercy of military base issues, needed a place where its people would be able to calm themselves and engage in quiet contemplation, and so I established the museum. I just thought that art would help create such a place.
For example, “Pictures of the Battle of Okinawa” thoroughly depicts the reality of the Battle of Okinawa. If you look at the entire work in detail, you can see that various events are depicted in a montage style and each event can be distinguished individually. Through the people depicted in meticulous lines in the work, we can feel the painters’ deep love for human beings. Although the work portrays an atrocious war, it makes us feel the dignity of human life. I believe this dramatic reversal is possible only through the power of excellent art.

Sakima Art Museum attracts many young people, from elementary school to college students, from all over Japan. The museum has a mission to convey important messages to young people, who are the future of the country. Therefore, we must collect authentic works of art and provide visitors with authentic information about such works of art.

In the old days, Okinawa was known as the Ryukyu Kingdom, which had already developed a rich culture through trade with the rest of East Asia. Back then, the kingdom’s gateway to Japan was the port of Sakai. The rich culture of the Ryukyu Kingdom, including an Okinawan musical instrument called the “sanshin”, was introduced to Japan, not through Kagoshima, but through the port of Sakai, which had a trusted relationship with the kingdom. Sakai was a self-governing city with a wealth of culture and art, and was home to Sen no Rikyu, a master of the tea ceremony.
I believe that a cultural pattern can have a lasting impact on the history of a particular region. When I was informed that the museum was chosen to receive the award, a sense of nostalgia swept over me. I was delighted, as if a long-lost relative with whom I share mutual respect had finally found me. Now that I know that Sakai City is seriously working on peace and human rights issues, I am deeply convinced that Sakai and Okinawa share common cultural values.
The receipt of the award has broadened the scope of the Museum and provided it with a boost of energy. Thank you very much.

With 73 years having passed since the end of World War II, we have to say that in Japan we have fewer and fewer opportunities to think deeply about war. Sakima Art Museum is one of the few places where people can calmly contemplate peace. The presence of the museum is very significant because it aims to communicate the preciousness of peace to future generations.

○ Representative: Ms. Ikuko Moriguchi
○ Background:
・2007: Philippine Children’s Project (PCP) was launched mainly by work camp participants. PCP began to interact with children at a foster home and teach children how to play the recorder at an elementary school attached to the foster home.
・2010: PCP began to accept college students. PCP launched a pre-departure training program for students planning to stay in the Philippines (demonstration classes, etc.) and a follow-up training program for those who have finished their stay in the Philippines (discussions about social problems in the Philippines and other issues faced by Filipinos).
・2012: PCP began to offer classes planned by college students (dance classes, science experiments, public health lectures, etc.) at public elementary schools.
・2016: The foster home, with which PCP interacted for nine years, was closed. There was a fear that PCP would not be able to continue its support program, but PCP decided to continue it in response to requests from other elementary schools and facilities in the Philippines.
・–Present: PCP publicizes its activities through in-house activity reports and DVDs produced.

PCP mainly focuses on children in the Philippines. Its activities include supporting children’s emotional development using donated recorders, public health lectures and cultural exchanges. PCP’s programs are adopted as volunteer practicums by universities and other academic institutions. PCP members work for non-profit organizations (NPOs) and elementary schools in Osaka and Kobe.
PCP’s activities for supporting children’s emotional development are unique. PCP members use their experience in various settings, such as when they teach children at schools. Therefore, we highly evaluate PCP, which is expected to help promote peace contribution efforts.

After Ashiya Cosmopolitan Association’s volunteer program in the Philippines was completed, some of the participants launched the PCP with the hope of continuing to interact with Filipinos. In Japan all children learn how to play the soprano recorder at elementary school, but they no longer use them after they leave school. The original purpose of PCP was to collect used soprano recorders and teach children how to play this musical instrument in the Philippines, where no music teaching materials were available, thereby contributing to the children’s emotional development. As we interacted with Filipinos, we recognized that we unconsciously had the mindset that “the haves must give the have-nots what they need.” We also had opportunities to recognize that the Filipinos’ traumatic experiences in the previous war and the income gap in the country were not completely unrelated to us. Therefore, we decided to incorporate such perspectives into our programs.

During the daytime, we would teach children how to play the recorder at elementary schools. In the evening or on holidays, we would talk and play with children at foster homes for street children. With a number of participating college students having increased since 2010, human resource development has become one of the aims of PCP, along with contributing to children’s emotional development in other countries and supporting foster homes. At elementary schools, PCP offers not only recorder lessons, but also lessons planned by college student participants (dancing, science experiments, etc.). Participants in PCP’s programs visit various places, including Japanese companies operating in the Philippines, Filipino families, battle sites of World War II and areas affected by the Mount Pinatubo eruption.
PCP provides participants with a two-month pre-departure training program before sending them to the Philippines. Even participants without teaching experience can teach classes after developing lesson plans and giving trial lessons repeatedly in the training program. PCP also provides participants with follow-up training, where they have an opportunity to discuss various topics such as international affairs, poverty, and welfare, as well as to express their feeling of happiness based on their experiences in the Philippines. We have seen many former participants tackling community and social problems and engaging in international cooperation activities. It is very encouraging to us.

We accept anyone who wants to participate in our activities and work with any participant as an equal partner. And when we collaborate with Filipinos, we help each other and learn from each other. That has been our policy from the beginning. We have no organizational structure and our accounting is simple. Since we launched our project, our first priority has been to accomplish the mission of visiting the Philippines once a year. There were numerous cases in which we found it difficult to continue our activities. For example, a Filipino coordinator, who had supported us for many years, relocated to another country, and a foster home, with which we had interacted, was closed. However, looking back, each time such a problem arose, various people stepped in to help us. Thanks to them, we have been able to continue our activities. We will continue to collaborate closely with elementary school teachers and foster home staff in the Philippines to offer public health and disaster preparedness lessons and establish a school children support program.

It is a great honor for a grassroots international cooperation project like ours to have gained such high recognition. We are truly grateful to all the people who recommended us for the SAKAI Peace Contribution Award and to the people of Sakai City. Receiving this award has provided us with a good opportunity to look back on our past activities and think about our future activities.
We believe that respecting one another and continuing to do what we can do is a step toward peace. Keeping that in mind, we would like to engage in cross-border activities through which we can share our thoughts with many more people. Thank you very much.

PCP is a group that has warmly supported local people through their activities, with the vision of a universal society where people can live peacefully regardless of cultural background, age, sex, nationality, abilities and other factors.
Students studying in Sakai City also participate in the group’s activities. We have a lot to learn from PCP, which welcomes many young participants.

Date & Time
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
11:00 am–11:45 am

Venue
Mayor’s Drawing Room, 4th Floor, Sakai City Hall

Program
・Introduction of awardees, the organizer, and guest

・Speech by guest: Chairperson Masahiro Terasako of the Screening Committee

・Award presentation

・Speech by representative of awarded organization: Sakima Art Museum

・Speech by representative of awarded organization: Philippine Children’s Project (PCP)

・Conversation between awardees and chairperson of the Screening Committee