International Political Will

On Thursday the Washington Post reported on the tens of thousands of unexploded “cluster bombs” dropped by Israel in Southern Lebanon – supplied via rapid delivery by the United States ahead of a pending ceasefire – that are continuing to kill civilians almost three weeks after the end of armed conflict.
The Post story was likely [...]

“If you had been here on that day and at that time, if you had seen the hell that opened up on earth before our eyes, if you had even a glimpse of that, you would never, never entertain the crazy thought of another war.”
–Dr. Takashi Nagai
“The Bells of Nagasaki”
As I meandered through the Atomic [...]

On a bus from a Tokyo hotel to the airport, a prerecorded announcement was made (of course in Japanese, of which I understood nothing). Luckily, there was an English translation immediately following:
“Passengers are reminded not to use mobile telephones while on the bus as they annoy your neighbors.”
It struck me as a little odd – [...]

Water is one of those universal elements that can both connect and divide life. Flying eleven hours over the Pacific Ocean, I began to understand how water had created an immense barrier between East and West, and I now had my own chance to bridge that gap.
I’d arrived in Japan the night before, and [...]