Peace, Peach, Peach!
The following speech won 1st place in the JHS Prefectural Speech Contest 2006. It was written by Mao Kikuchi from Ōdate Dai Ichi Junior High School.
PEACE, PEACH, PEACH!
Hello, everyone. Do you know the word "peach"? This means "peace" in Italian. It is the only word my grandmother learned when she visited Italy.
During her stay there, the Iraq war broke out in March, 2003. She heard a lot of people shouting, "PEACE, PEACH, PEACH!" from outside of her hotel. She she ran up to the window and witnessed over one hundred men and women of all ages demonstrating with the "PEACE". The houses around there were flying big colourful flags "PEACE".
She told me how people in Rome were objecting to the war. And she added "Mao, it was high school students in Italy that began this antiwar movement". I was strongly impressed.
In Japan we eat three meals a day, go to school and have a vague dream for the future. In other words, we live a really peaceful life every day. On the other hand, the same-age teenagers in Italy were vigorously appealing against the war to the world.
The tragic news about the was was reported on TV every day: people escaping from fire, people bloodstained all over by bombings and so on. These were all the facts I didn't want to face.
Why wouldn't we human beings stop these cruel wars?
Three years have passed since the Iraq war ended, but does our world get peaceful? In fact, many people are still now afraid of civil wars, terrorisms, missiles and nuclear bombs.
Then, what can I do? One is to pass on how sad wars effect younger generations because I was born in the only atomic-bombed country.
Others are to start a drive to raise funds and, at least, to pay attention to the world situation.
My family has invited ALTs and foreign visitors to our home. They tell us about what's happening in the world. They give me great opportunities to think about the world outside of Japan.
It might be a trivial thing that I hope for peace, but it will be a greater power if everyone desires world peace. In the future I would love to get a job like contributing to improving these terrible situations. This means I want to help everyone study hard and live with a big dream.
I'm really grateful to the Italian students for giving me a chance to think of these things. I hope that we human beings will push selfish desires aside and acquire a good judgement to realise world peace. And, of course, I will never forget to respect for human life.
Let's hope for PEACE with me, everyone!
