Children’s Peace Messages of Okinawa
Students in UH West Oʻahu’s Anthropology 383 course (Museum Studies) will get the unique opportunity to execute all components of putting on an exhibit when they prepare “Children’s Peace Messages of Okinawa” at the UH West Oʻahu Library.
The class project seeks to teach students how to design an exhibit to make complex ideas and material objects accessible and compelling. Students are responsible for designing, assembling, promoting, and evaluating the exhibit. They will gain hands-on experience in museum operations as they prepare to showcase the exhibit, under the supervision of Dr. Christy Mello.
“Children’s Peace Messages of Okinawa” is on loan from the Hawaiʻi Okinawa Center from Sept. 29 through Oct. 11, on the second floor of the UH West Oahu library.
The “Children’s Peace Messages of Okinawa” exhibit is a collection of images, essays, and poetry created by children living in Japan, who created the peace messages in the year 2000 to share with the ambassadors of embassies from across the world. Inspired by lessons learned about the WWII Battle of Okinawa, in which there were an estimated 100,000 civilian casualties, this was a peace education project in which the children were assigned a country in which to send a message of peace. Students at UHWO wish to share and broadcast these messages of peace to a world that continues to be embroiled in violent conflict.