 The 13th International Friendship Youth Retreat, which was held at Wada village, Nagano Prefecture from August 1 to 3, ended successfully. Having participated in it as an advisor, I would like to make some frank comments on the retreat. The preparation for the retreat was initiated by group leaders under the leadership of Mr. Takayuki Hashinaga, head of the Committee for Youth Activities. The formal planning committee, however, was held in May, approximately 3 months ahead of the retreat. The meeting, which opened with Mr. Genta Atoji, head of the Executive Committee, confirmed three mottoes of this year; ”let’s talk with each other,” ”let’s become friends,” and “let’s walk hand in hand.” As the theme for discussion they selected “education,” more specifically, “education at home,” “education at schools,” and “education of the world and of Japan, namely education for peace.” They further decided on the roles of each member of the Executive Committee. Late in July the participants assembled to get to know each other as well as to listen to the explanations of different units. All these processes of preparation proceeded in a very friendly atmosphere. I observed that they became quite independent and that their planning ability, leadership and procedural skill made big progress. But there was still a room for improvement in expediting the discussion proceedings. On August 1, 78 participants from 12 countries gathered at Wada village. Following the opening ceremony, each member of the staff was introduced and each national flag was explained. The national flag of Japan was not explained as well as other national flags. The Meguro UNESCO Association purchased some pamphlets explaining our national flag and handed them to the explainer in advance, but apparently that was not enough. Let us hope for the next year. On the second day, the radio exercise and a walk in the woods, both of which were introduced for the first time this year, were followed by the keynote speech by Mr. Hattori, discussions on education, and a campfire. All of them were wonderful and the punctuality was much improved compared with the last year. Meals, cleaning, and recreation activities were faultless, thanks to the leadership of each people in charge and cooperation of all participants. There was a room for improvement, however, in the way the discussions were handled. They had no general meeting to confirm the results of discussions by each group. If each group, after having discussion on each subject, had got together and reported the results of discussion to the general meeting, they could have shared these results. Also, I felt that as Mr. Hattori’s speech touches the essence of UNESCO activities, it would be necessary for the Committee for Youth Activities to continue to study his speech daily so that it would penetrate into everyone’s minds. On the third day, appreciation was expressed at the closing ceremony to all people concerned including those who carried various responsibilities and those who volunteered their services. It was quite considerate that appreciation was expressed to the caretaker of the lodging house and his wife. As I pointed out above, there were some new trials in the fields of planning and management at the retreat of this year, and I would like to praise highly the members of the executive committee for their efforts. Although I made some criticisms in my foregoing comments, it was meant to be advice to bring the grade of 80 up to 90 or 100, or “to make better the best.” |