Can't We Have Peace?

Hi, everyone! It's been a while since I last uploaded a post. To be honest, I haven't been able to have time to sit down alone in front of my laptop to write a post because I had been with people a lot this week. My sister visited me, and stayed at my place this week, which was so much fun, and also, I was at my boyfriend's place for the past few days. It's been a while since last time when I was at my house alone actually!

Oh, by the way, it's the cherry blossom season again in Japan! This spring, it came a little late that usual, but I was lucky enough to have a full day to walk around, and see those beautiful pink flowers since the school hasn't started yet. It actually started today, but I don't have any class on Fridays this semester, so basically, I am going back to school from Monday next week! I am so excited about my new classes because I am mostly taking the ones that I really don't have to. I am almost done with all my required classes for my major, which means that I can take extra classes because I have more time than previous years, when I had to spend my time taking required classes. I am so hyped up!

Ok, so this time, I am going to talk about a sad thing that happened recently. And I am so sad that I have to talk about this. Because... seriously, when we can say that we have a peaceful world? We human beings have had two major wars. But sadly, it seems like those aren't enough for us to really learn that we shouldn't rely on violence anymore. I feel like people want peace, but not many people actually believe that we can really achieve that with everyone working together. People want peace, but they think that's too difficult and complicated. Or maybe they think there's no such thing as peace. They may think that they want to have faith in people and people's good will, but too many times their hope has been betrayed.

I was watching a news program the other day, and when I heard this, I was speechless... because I was so shocked to hear the news. Japanese government said that it would not participate in the negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapon. I will link an article from The Japan Times, so that you can read it. I was shocked because Japan should be willing to talk about this. Japan is the only country that have suffered from attacks using nuclear weapons. We should be the first country to raise our hands, and say, "Hey, we should work together to make a better world." I see that Japanese government is making a political move. They stepped out of the negotiations because Japan is "under the U.S. nuclear umbrella," as it says on the article from The Japan Times. Japan can't really say the world doesn't need nuclear weapons, huh? This is really frustrating. I think those people who actually was there in 1945, and experience all the damage and sorrow brought by nuclear weapons are also frustrated.

I know we can't just say, "Alright, so all kinds of nuclear weapons are banned from tomorrow, so let's just dump all the things we have now." We need a steady plan, and follow it step by step. But rather just trying to find a way to achieve the world without any nuclear threat, Japan just simply stepped out. Easy as it is.

I mean... what are we doing?! Is this the peace we want? Maybe it's the peace we deserve. "Haha! We have this deadly weapon here! You see that? You know what? This one can be really bad! You don't wanna see me fire this, do you? No, you don't. And we don't wanna do that either. Alright, so we don't fight." So we live in a peaceful world where people still need to fear somebody may fire nuclear weapons someday. Is this peace? Are we happy?

I feel like this is the same as gun control. People always say, "But what if...?" "But how would you protect yourself and your family when things happened?" So, maybe we want to, but apparently, we don't believe in the theory of innate goodness of human beings. We have been living on the peace based upon the idea that we human beings are fundamentally and inherently evil.

Well, living in Japan is easy in terms of not having to live with fear of civil wars or bombings from foreign countries. But in many places around the world, people have to and forced to live with fear. I see innocent people getting injured, being killed, crying, and suffering on the television, and it hurts to watch those pictures. I can't stop myself from crying. I want to switch to different channels, but I always don't because for those people, that's the reality they cannot escape from. And then I get angry at myself for enjoying this ordinary life. And... our leader announced that they were refraining from talking about the treaty to ban nuclear weapons? I am so ashamed.

The world free of nuclear weapons might sound crazy in this world with nuclear weapons. But you can't make things come true if don't believe you can. I don't have any kids yet, but when I do in the future, I want to tell them people can have a peaceful world with confidence. I don't want to feel like I'm lying to them. I don't want to tell them we can't have a peaceful world because we're all too scared. I don't want to tell them it's better to be armed than to have faith in humanity.

I know this is a complicated, difficult issue. But we all want peace. It's simple; we all want peace. Can't we have it?

Reference:

• A treaty to ban nuclear weapons. (2017, April 1). Retrieved April 7, 2017, from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/04/01/editorials/treaty-ban-nuclear-weapons/#.WOd5zoiGNPY