Hiroshima is well-known for the historical tragedy of atomic bombing. In the current world situation, Hiroshima plays an increasingly important role in pursing world peace. Peace Memorial Park is a must-visit destination for foreign tourists.

         Do you know that some IGS students guide them at the park in English as Youth Peace Volunteers? At the early August, NHK World featured Youth Peace Volunteer in the news and interviewed Riho Ishii and Mayuko Yagi, who both are the 4th year IGS students. They described their experience and expressed their thoughts about peace and their mission in the news. Unfortunately, we cannot share the televised news due to the license issue. Instead, we asked Riho and Mayuko to tell us about how their experience of Youth Peace Volunteers have influenced their perception of world peace and what they have learnt from guiding in English.

Riho Ishii (4th year IGS students):

- How has their experience of Youth Peace Volunteers influenced their perception of world peace?

         I came to believe that the most important and very first thing to realize world peace is to know what happened in the past and is happening currently, and how people are suffering from that today. Through listening to the experiences of Hibakusha, I learned we cannot understand the damage itself by the atomic bomb or their sorrow. However, we can know and study what happened in real. I believe the mission as a member of Youth Peace Volunteer should provide an opportunity to know the fact to foreign visitors and make their chances to face world peace.

- What have you learnt from guiding in English?

          Fluency in English has nothing to do with the guide's quality. I learned that it is important to speak consciously to convey my thoughts so that I try to have my own thoughts for each cenotaph or peace in general. Add to that, since visitors come from many different countries, it is important to guide them by understanding their side of perspectives.

Mayuko Yagi (4th year IGS students):

- How has their experience of Youth Peace Volunteers influenced their perception of world peace?

         Since I was born and raised in Hiroshima for almost 20 years, I have received peace education from an early age, but after learning about it through this activity, I realized that I only knew part of it. I also believe that it is very meaningful for us, the younger generation who do not know the time of the war, to engage in this activity, and I believe that our awareness of this activity will lead to world peace, even if only a little. I would like to continue to work on guiding in such a way that even a single memory will remain in the hearts of the tourists who are guided, and when they return to their hometowns, I would like to do my best to convey what I have learned and thought through guiding to as many people as possible, so that world peace will spread from there.

- What have you learnt from guiding in English?

           I thought I had learned enough to be a guide, but I felt that I still have a lot to learn when I was asked questions that I had never thought about by tourists. I also began to think more deeply about my own opinions and ideas, and at the same time, I became more conscious of learning English conversation more deeply in order to faithfully convey them in English.