Mennonite Weekly Review

CHENGDU, China — The road to peace is seldom easy.

Teenagers from China, Japan and South Korea build group cohesiveness at Mennonite Central Committee’s first northeast Asia peace camp through an exercise of joining hands and then untangling themselves. — Photo by Rod Suderman/MCC

Eighteen teenagers from China, Japan and South Korea discovered this truth through their experiences with the first northeast Asian peace camp sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee.

The teens were coming together to address grievances and prejudices long held by people of their countries.

Counselors from MCC and other peace-promoting organizations — World Friendship Center in Hiroshima, the Korean Anabaptist Center and The Frontiers based in Korea, as well as Peace in China based in Nanchong — were there to guide the process.

The discussions would be difficult enough, but simply getting to the peace camp was an arduous process of its own — symbolic perhaps. The first peace camp was supposed to be held last year but had to be postponed because of the earthquake that rocked the province of Sichuan, where the campground is located.

This year, the bus carrying the campers broke down near Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, leaving them stranded by the side of the road for several hours. The replacement bus wended its way through the rain on narrow mountain roads until reaching a rough and muddy track hardly wide enough for a car.

The driver refused to go further, so the teens and 14 counselors, who hadn’t eaten in eight hours, hiked the last 10 minutes by flashlight to the campground and their waiting dinner.

The traveling difficulties to the peace camp, however, were not as tough as the road the teens and counselors would travel toward a peaceful understanding.

Cultural and historical differences between South Korea, China and Japan can be pronounced, said Leah Wang, director of Peace in China and host of the camp. Wang previously served with MCC’s International Volunteer Exchange Program.

Young people pick up on the fears and resentments of their elders who suffered through World War II, said Park YoonSeo, a staff member for Korean Anabaptist Center and a former participant in the exchange program. During the war, Japan and China fought each other, and afterward Korea was taken from Japanese control and divided.