Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen High School

Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen High School - Sendai, Japan.

Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen High School is a Catholic girls' school with both Junior and Senior campuses. The students investigated World War II experiences of women, suffering of people at the home front, propaganda and how the war affected their school.

"This project gave me an opportunity to consider what peace really is. I want many people to know about this project and think by themselves. What’s war? Who are they fighting for? To think about these questions while we are living ordinary lives may be a little difficult, but it is essential to put an end to any wars."

Nao - Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen High School

Group 1: Religion and women in World War II

Communication objective

First of all, we want you to feel the preciousness of peace. A lot of people were hurt both physically and mentally by World War II, even though they were civilians. We haven’t forgotten that war can change our lives significantly. This banner informs you of the severe life those people endured. We want you to accept it subjectively.

Our research idea

Our theme is “Religion and Women in World War II” We will consider peace from this point of view. Japan was badly damaged by World War II, and Sendai too. We heard that there were women who supported people in Sendai then. They were students of Sendai Girls School. This became Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen later. It is said that they served and worked for other people, though they lived a hard life. In Japan, it was difficult to accept foreign religion such as Christianity then, so they couldn’t pray freely. However, they accepted other people.

How did they feel then? We are sure that learning about Sendai Girls School and its students will tell us what true peace is. We want to inform people of their actions, and let people consider peace, and to make a world in which all people are kind to anyone without difference of religions.

Group statement

Conflicts or wars break out here and there. As a result, many people are killed or injured. Each of us should think about our own peace and share each other’s opinions or wars will never end, I think. Therefore, I have continued to study war and peace. This project gave me an opportunity to consider what peace really is. I want many people to know about this project and think by themselves. What’s war? Who are they fighting for?

Group 2: Propaganda through Mass Media

Communication objective

We want people to think about each country seeing an issue from various perspectives and everyone can be wounded very easily without thinking.

Our research idea

Propaganda is biased information intended to promote a particular political cause or view. In that sense, Japanese propaganda was no different from other nations' propaganda. Advertising here is basically to move people's minds and lead them to action Impression is the driving force to move public opinion and it can be said that propaganda and excitement cannot be separated since it is not a government's job to create excitement, either they leave it to a professional advertising company or rely on artists and intellectuals who are good at evoking inspiration. Thus, it was possible to convey accurate information to a large number of listeners in Japan very quickly because radio was an inexpensive medium. Most citizens are had one, so primarily a radio was used to deploy propaganda to Japanese people. In overseas, other electrical media such as television and movies conveyed the information to the citizens more than radio.

Group statement

When we started this project, we did not thing about war really often, and did not know deep substances, but that was changed. We interviewed our school Sisters who have experienced World War II. That interview changed everything in our thought of war. We noticed each county have different thought by searching propaganda. We think that we all had good experienced searching this project.

Group 3: the Unknown grief of people at the Homefront

Communication objective

The idea is to show people that the people from the home front had suffered during the World War II, but they weren’t recognised for their efforts. We would like them to go away thinking about how the people suffered, and feel sorry for them.

Our research idea

During the World War II, many people suffered. The soldiers that went to war, and the families that lost them. The soldiers were respected and recognized by the people of the country, and the families got the support from others. But people who had served at the home front did not get the recognition they deserved. They worked at factories and built the things they needed for the war. Their jobs were difficult and dangerous. They were the ones who helped out the country during the war.

Our project is to let people know about what had happened in the past, and learn more about the people from the home front. By doing so, we can acknowledge those people, and make sure that those terrible things won’t ever happen again.

Group statement

We had never researched anything about these topics, so it was interesting to learn about what had really happened. It was sad to know that there were people who suffered, but worked hard for the country, and did not get the appreciation they needed. I hoped that by working on this project, we can show people the truce, and we can use this to not make the same mistakes we all did in the past.