36th IARF Congress, Day 3: Reconciliation and Peace in North-East Asia, Prof. Kathy Matsui

Description

Peace educator Kathy Matsui presents reconciliation in North-East Asia as a long-term process of truth-telling, apology, forgiveness, empathy, human rights and repeated dialogue. Drawing on Desmond Tutu and conflict-transformation scholarship, she argues that unresolved historical wounds between Japan, Korea and neighbouring societies cannot be healed through pressure or political declarations alone. Trust grows through sustained encounters in which people learn one another’s histories and gradually replace inherited assumptions with relationships.

Matsui illustrates this approach through religious and civil-society initiatives. She recalls an IALRW gathering in Korea where Japanese participants sang “Arirang,” producing an unexpected moment of shared emotion and reconciliation. She then surveys peace-education work through IALRW, Religions for Peace Japan, NARPI and other networks, including programmes in Ukraine, the Balkans, Armenia, Mindanao and Japanese seminaries. Her own university curriculum combines conflict resolution, human rights, disarmament, multicultural, interfaith, gender and environmental education. She concludes by advocating a common North-East Asian peace-education framework and stronger collaboration among religious organizations, educators and civil society to rebuild trust and transform cultures of violence.