Barbara
Boyer
2012 Study
Tour Participant
I began
preparing for the 2012 ALPHA Peace and Reconciliation Study Tour by reading
articles and books which taught me what I would see and hear when I arrived in
The groups
of teachers that I traveled with were diverse in their teaching experience,
cultural backgrounds, and historical knowledge, but all were dedicated
professionals. The professors who
lectured during the tour were distinguished researchers in their fields.
What touched my heart most was meeting the survivors who suffered the atrocities of World War II: the comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery, a labor camp survivor, two men burned by chemical bombs while digging at a construction site, and a man who managed as a young boy to survive under the protection of John Rabe in the International Safety Zone in Nanjing. I learned so much by visiting the sites where hundreds of thousands of people were massacred, biological warfare experiments were conducted, and women were sexually exploited against their will.
World War II
has taken on an entirely new meaning for me.
I will never forget what I personally witnessed in