Recycling weapons

One step forward toward a society without conflict

What do you imagine when you hear the idea of "recycling weapons"? For people living in Japan, where 65 years have passed since the end of World War II, weapons are not familiar things in our daily lives.

However, there are a great number of weapons out in the world. Among these weapons, some have been transformed into musical instruments to play notes of peace. In such ways, weapons are being recycled to provide something positive to people's lives.

Peace Seeds seeks to help realize a world without conflict. What can human beings do in order to live at peace without weapons? Through interviews, we discovered ideas to support this pursuit of peace.

We learned about a picture book featuring the story of a cannon's boom that changes into the sound of peace. With armed conflict continuing in the world today, we also came up with our own story involving the transformation of weapons in order to express our wish for a peaceful world.

On August 6, 2010, the Japanese version of the picture book "La guerra delle campane" ("The Bells of War") was released. This book was translated by an American poet living in Tokyo, Arthur Binard, 43. In the story, a cannon appears which can produce victory with only one shot. "The cannon in the picture book is a symbol of a nuclear weapon," Mr. Binard explained. "Through the story of the cannon, the book conveys the idea that nuclear weapons are the most foolish weapons ever devised."

Holding the picture book he translated, Arthur Binard stresses the foolishness of war and nuclear weapons.

In the story, a large cannon made of many bells, collected from all over the country, makes the sound of peace when it is fired. Mr. Binard said that the bells signify "a festival celebrating the outbreak of peace," the main idea of the story. He objects to the expression "the outbreak of war," which is often used in Japan in the same sense. "Peace could suddenly occur," he stressed, "but not war, because war requires long preparations in order to be waged."

"Hiroshima and Nagasaki have persistently made the appeal that if wars continue to be fought, the result will be nuclear winter and the extinction of the human species," he said. "The sound of peace has resonated from the A-bombed cities," he added.

We asked Mr. Binard about the recycling of arms. For example, in areas where depleted uranium munitions have been used, metals and other objects are now contaminated. "If war isn't waged, then weapons won't need to be recycled," he said firmly. (Shiori Kusuo, 17, who served as photographer, too)

Cesar Lopez holds a guitar that was made from a rifle.

Transforming guns into guitars is one effort to recycle weapons. The idea was conceived by Cesar Lopez, 37, a musician in Colombia. He said that he wants to convey a message against violence by transforming terrible weapons into instruments of peace and reconciliation.

The rifles converted into guitars were once used by terrorist groups or criminal gangs operating in Colombia. After the dangerous parts of the weapon are removed, the rifles are reborn as guitars.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has lent its support to this effort since 2005. Aldo Lale-Demoz, 54, the representative of the Colombia office of UNODC, told us that Colombia has suffered from violence inside its borders for the last 60 years. Together with Mr. Lopez, he wishes to appeal for peace.

One of the guitars is on display at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, and some musicians who make appeals for peace through their music, as well as some citizens' groups, are in possession of the guitars, too.

The words of a youth living in a slum in Brazil have become fixed in Mr. Lopez's mind: "If weapons can change, why not me?" (Shotaro Takata, 16)

Kenichi Yamada explains the history behind the breakwater which makes use of old concrete vessels. (Photo by Yuumi Kimura, 14)

Former vessels of a concrete fleet are now being used as a breakwater in Mitsuguchi Port in Yasuura in the city of Kure. The vessels were built with concrete due to a shortage of iron at the end of the World War II. They were used to carry military supplies for the former Japanese Imperial Navy.

After the war, fishermen in Mitsuguchi petitioned the Hiroshima Prefectural government to build a breakwater to prevent damage caused by typhoons. However, the land under the water isn't firm enough so a breakwater could not be built with the technology available at that time.

Under these circumstances, they arrived at the idea of reusing two concrete vessels, moored in Kure and Osaka, as a breakwater. Thus, they made a request to the Japanese government to sell the ships, and, in 1950, the breakwater formed by the two vessels, the "Takechimaru 1" and the Takechimaru 2," was completed.

Kenichi Yamada, 62, a resident in the area and a community volunteer, told us: "I'm impressed with the level of technology that went into building these concrete vessels, and it also reveals the difficult conditions of that time due to the shortage of materials. I hope advanced technology, like this, will be used for peaceful purposes." (Shiori Kosaka, 15)

In Ikebukuro, Tokyo, there is a tofu shop called "Oomomo Tofu." After the end of World War II, the tofu shop bought "buttstocks," the wooden part of a rifle after the metal is removed, and used them as firewood to produce tofu.

The son of the founder, Nobuhiro Oomomo, 73, was an elementary school student at the time and he helped with the work of the shop. "The rifles were used in the Pacific War," he recalled. "I guess the oil used to maintain the guns soaked into the buttstocks and so the wood burned well."

He added: "It's possible those guns killed Japanese people. And many of the guns might have killed foreigners as well." When he was a child, Mr. Oomomo wasn't concerned with such things, but now he believes: "We have to be aware of the fact that we were perpetrators, too, not simply victims."

He has personal experience of the time when people were suffering from a widespread lack. Back then, his mother would provide soybean milk to mothers who couldn't produce enough breast milk due to malnutrition. "Peace means that we have enough to eat every day," he said, emphasizing his words. (Yuumi Kimura, 14)

Short story created by the junior writers The Nation Where a Trumpet Plays Two neighboring countries, Saxo and Eupho, were at war. Crack! Boom! Second Lieutenant Leon of the Eupho army was driving a tank, rolling over flowers and attacking children who were cheerfully playing. How long would this war go on? A girl named Lina in Saxo lost her arms in the assault by the tank. Lina was a cheerful girl who liked music. In her country, experiments were being conducted in which weapons were planted into human bodies. When she was brought to a military facility to treat her injuries, she was used as a guinea pig. In place of her arms, two rifles were attached to her shoulders. After that, she encountered another tragedy. A malfunction of her rifle-arms caused a mishap and her friends were hurt. She was shunned from the group and the smile disappeared from her face. Second Lieutenant Leon hurt and killed a lot of innocent people with his tank and the result was victory for Eupho. However, when he returned to his hometown, he found that his wife and daughter had been killed by the Saxo army. The only thing he had left was the tank. Finally, he realized the error of his ways. He felt the sorrow of losing the family he loved to war. He drove his tank to Saxo. It was now a desolate land. He saw a girl from far away. She looked like his daughter who was killed in the war. It was Lina, with her rifle-arms. Leon told her, "Let's remove the rifles and attach instruments instead." Lina didn't trust him, a soldier of the enemy nation. She was afraid that he would hurt her. Lina, a human weapon, had become so terribly hurt, both mentally and physically, that she had no trust in anyone anymore. Leon melted his tank and produced two special trumpets, which he showed to Lina. After the operation, she found that the sparkling trumpets were now her arms. When she started playing her trumpets, many children gathered around her. It no longer mattered who was friend and who was foe. Instead of the boom of a tank, a gentle sound spread and a smile returned to Lina's face. Since then, Leon and Lina have traveled all over the world, playing the music of peace. (Written by Shiori Kusuo, 17, Saaya Teranishi, 14, and Sachiko Kitayama, 14; Saya also made the illustrations)