This summer, I will be interning at the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima, Japan. This opportunity was provided to me by the generous grant given to Illinois Wesleyan by the Freeman Foundation. The Illinois Wesleyan Freeman Asia Internships place students who are either standing sophomores or juniors at internship sites all over Asia. I am incredibly lucky to be in Hiroshima, which has been restored since the atomic bombing as the peace mecca. 

 

The World Friendship Center began in 1965, opened by Barbara Reynolds, an American woman who believed that Hiroshima holds international significance. World Friendship Center is a peace education house, as well as a bed and breakfast. People from around the world gather here to discuss peace, talk about the significance of the first atomic bomb, and build international friendships. WFC also provides presentations by hibakusha– atomic bomb survivors– guided peace tours around the city, and English classes. I feel incredibly blessed to be here, and I am learning more than I ever could have imagined.