1950 - Yukika Sohma: 'Japan can become reborn'

By Mary Lean

05/02/2021
Yukaki Shoma young

 

Yukaki Shoma young

The Japanese flag was flying outside the conference centre as 64 Japanese arrived in Caux in 1950, to be welcomed by a chorus singing in Japanese. It was a moving moment as back in Japan, still under American occupation, displaying the flag was forbidden. 

The delegation included seven prefectural governors, a number of Diet members and the mayors of four cities, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of the 10 women in the delegation was Yukika Sohma.

Yukika was the daughter of Yukio Ozaki, revered as the father of Japanese parliamentary democracy. He served in the Diet for 63 years, and was imprisoned during the World War II for his opposition to war. For Yukika the years leading up to World War II were ‘like living in suffocation’, as laws were passed to crush liberal thinking. The ideas of Initiatives of Change (formerly known as Moral Re-Armament), which she encountered at this time, were ‘like a fresh breeze blowing from above when all around were tight walls’.

Yukika acted as interpreter for the delegation, as it travelled on to Italy, Germany, France, Britain and the US. Wherever they went, the Mayor of Hiroshima, Shinzo Hamai, gave dignatories a gift from his city: a small cross made out of the heart of an ancient camphor tree, planted when the city was founded in 1589. The outside of the tree had been destroyed by the atomic blast, but its core survived.

Japanes in Caux 1950
Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Caux

On the fifth anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, the delegation was in California. They were invited to speak on CBS radio. Yukika described their encounters at the IofC conference centre in Caux as a ‘conference of answers, of results that only need multiplication to build a solid cure to world problems’. In a ‘family of nations where differences of race, of class and of point of view were superseded... we saw and experienced reconciliation of hearts…. We saw that with this new spirit Japan can become reborn.’

Shinzo Hamai also spoke in the broadcast, describing the ‘nightmare’ that had happened to his city. He quoted words that he had had heard at the conference centre in Caux, ‘Peace is people becoming different’ and declared, ‘I for one intend to start this effort from Hiroshima. The one dream and hope left to our surviving citizens is to re-establish the city as a pattern for peace.’

We saw and experienced reconciliation of hearts…. We saw that with this new spirit Japan can become reborn.

In 1952, Hiroshima unveiled a memorial to the victims of the atom bomb, inscribed, ‘Let all the souls here rest in peace, we shall not make the same mistake again.’ On his return from Caux, Hamai had championed this wording against fierce opposition from those who wanted the inscription to condemn the United States.

 

Yukika Sohma devoted the rest of her life to encouraging Japan to rebuild its relations with its neighbours. In 1979 she called on every Japanese to give one yen to help refugees in Southeast Asia. Within three months she had raised 120 million yen. The organization she founded later became the Association for Aid and Relief, providing humanitarian relief and supporting landmine clearance. She remained its president until she died in 2008.

Also read Yukika's article 'Apology is a key to the future'

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Watch this video from our film archives on the Japanese journey for peace.

 

 

 

Watch journalist Chris Mayor remembering his interview with the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during their visit to Caux 1950 (credit: ABC Australia). You can also read more on Chris Mayor and his interview in 1950 by clicking here.

 

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

 

Featured Story
Off
Event Categories
75th anniversary 75 stories

related stories

This is us square 8.png

75 Years of Stories: Meet the team!

When we launched the 75 Years of Stories series in February 2021 about 75 years of encounters at the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux, we had no idea what an adventure we had embarked o...

Caux in snow 2021 credit Cindy Bühler

2021: Initiatives of Change Switzerland – Opening Caux’s doors to a new chapter

As our series of 75 stories for 75 years of the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux draws to an end, the President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland, Christine Beerli, and its two Co-Di...

Aad Burger

2020: Aad Burger – Struck by a virus

In 2020, the Caux Forum went online in response to the pandemic. Its organizers found that this made Caux accessible to people all over the world who could not have taken part in normal circumstances....

Marc Isserles 2017

2019: Marc Isserles – ‘We must save the children’

During World War II, the Caux Palace (later the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Switerland) provided a refuge for Jews fleeing the Shoah. Over the years, some of them – or their descendants...

Wael Broubaker climate actionist

2018: Wael Boubaker – ‘Climate change should be top top top priority’

When Tunisian economics graduate Wael Boubaker joined the Caux Peace and Leadership Programme (CPLP) in 2018, he expected a conference which would look good on his CV, and some beautiful scenery. Inst...

Tanaka Mhunduru CPLP

2017: Tanaka Mhunduru – A home for the world

Tanaka Mhunduru from Zimbabwe is one of the organizers of the Caux Peace and Leadership Programme (CPLP), a one-month programme for young people from around the world. He first took part in 2017....

Diana Damsa Winter Gathering 2016

2016: Diana Damsa – ‘It made me feel I counted’

The Winter Gathering of 2016 was a special experience for Diana Damsa – not just because she experienced Caux in winter, but also because, for the first time in eight years, she had no responsibilitie...

Philippe and Liseth Lasserre

2015: Lisbeth Lasserre – ‘The richness in art’

Lisbeth Lasserre came from Winterthur, where her grandparents, Hedy and Arthur Hahnloser, had built up a private collection of art at their home, Villa Flora. Amongst their artist friends were Bonnard...

Catherine Guisan

2014: Catherine Guisan – Europe’s Unfinished Business

Catherine Guisan is Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, USA. She has written two books on the ethical foundations of European integration. In 2014 she spoke at Caux’s first se...

Tom Duncan

2013: Tom Duncan – Restoring a healthy planet

2013 saw the first full-length Caux Dialogues on Land and Security (CDLS). These events, which took place at the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre, focus on the links between sustainable land managem...

Merel Rumping

2012: Merel Rumping – Going out on a limb

When Merel Rumping from the Netherlands first visited Caux in 2012, she had a goal in mind – ‘to explore how I could contribute to a more just world through my professional activities’....

Lucette Schneider

2011: Lucette Schneider – Choices which make the magic of Caux

For many years, Lucette Schneider from Switzerland organized the team which gathered in the early mornings to wash, peel and chop vegetables for the kitchens of the Caux conference centre. ...

Mohan Bhagwandas 2003

2010: Mohan Bhagwandas – Addressing the crisis of integrity

Mohan Bhagwandas is all too aware of his carbon footprint. In the 13 years from 2006 to 2019, he flew 17 times from his home city of Melbourne, Australia, to Switzerland to take part in the Caux confe...

Rajmohan Gandhi 2011 Caux Forum Human Security

2009: Rajmohan Gandhi – Bridges between India and Pakistan

25 distinguished Indians and Pakistanis came to Caux in 2009 with the aim of building bridges between their countries. The man who initiated the gathering was Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Ga...

Iman Ajmal Masroor

2008: Learning to be a Peacemaker – ‘An eye-opener to the world’

2008 saw the launch of an unusual course on Islam’s approach to peacemaking for young Muslims and non-Muslims, devised by Imam Ajmal Masroor from the UK. The course’s coordinator, Peter Riddell, descr...