If We Really Wanted To, Perhaps We Could Even Achieve World Peace

 Hydrangeas are already in full bloom in Kamakura, and even the fireflies seem to have arrived early this year. Watching the recent Japan–South Korea summit on television, I found myself wondering: if people truly decide to get along, perhaps peace is not as difficult as we imagine.

 

The hydrangeas in front of Kamakura Station are already in full bloom.

The same goes for the fireflies. Perhaps the seasons are moving faster this year.

On television, I saw Prime Minister Takaichi visiting South Korea and speaking with the president there in a friendly atmosphere. I found myself oddly surprised, thinking, “So we can get along after all, if we decide to.”

The news narration said that differences in historical understanding still remain between the two countries. That may be true. Problems are problems. But even while carrying them, it is still better to get along.

As the saying goes, things are often easier done than feared. Once people actually try, they may find that it can be done.

There are many science fiction novels and films about world peace.

In some of them, peace is actually achieved.

Sometimes it is achieved through authoritarian rule. Sometimes through AI.

There are also stories in which people grow tired of the peace they have finally obtained, or rebel against being managed, and end up destroying it.

Leaving aside how each of those imagined stories ends, perhaps peace itself may be surprisingly easy to obtain if humanity truly decides to live peacefully.

When I look at the conflicts happening around the world today, I wonder where the legitimate reasons really are.

Are they not simply being carried out under convenient slogans, by politicians or companies trying to protect themselves?

Perhaps most of them are things that make us think, “Is that really worth all this?”

Peace should be something we could obtain rather easily, if only we stopped this and that, and tried to get along a little.

The fact that we cannot do even that is a rather sad thing.

Peace may be closer than we think, and that may be the saddest part of all. 

 

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Vocabulary for Learners

• hydrangea：紫陽花
• fireflies：蛍
• historical understanding：歴史認識
• authoritarian rule：強権政治
• grow tired of：〜に飽きる、倦む
• convenient slogans：都合のよい大義名分
• get along：仲良くする、うまくやる
• world peace：世界平和