Teresa pulled herself out of bed this morning at 6, willingly she said, to attend mass at the church where we are staying. I, attempting to capture her grace, got out of bed as well to have a second round of arguments with the dryer which holds captive all of our clean clothing.

Demetra and Alyson laid out our breakfast. Yesterday they, along with Steve and Kristi, went to the store and brought home the ingredients for a little bit of America – spaghetti, watermelon, salad. For breakfast they had yogurt, fruit、and toast, which we made in a pan on the stove. It was glorious.

We gathered in the courtyard to head out for a long day of peace making. As is the case with most such days, it was raining. The benefit of the rain in Hiroshima though is that it hides the sun, and we are able to walk a little farther and climb a few more stairs before being overwhelmed by the heat.

Iwakuni Marine Base was our first destination, where we toured the perimeter then met with the community members of the Japan Peace Committee. After a delicious meal, which the Women’s Committee prepared for us, we left for Miyajima Island, then headed to ground zero to meet with Steven Leaper, director of the Hiroshima Peace Museum.

Steven is the first American to be director of the Hiroshima Peace Museum, but didn`t take long for us to realize why he had been given the honor and responsibility. He described our current situation as “crunch time,” that “when it comes to nuclear weapons, next May we will decide as a species whether we will rid the world of nuclear weapons or five them to everyone... The Hiroshima Nagasaki Protocol is the only viable proposal on the table... The key question is, what is the human race going to do about nuclear weapons?” We walked out of the boardroom nodding our heads, smiling, and saying “yes, that`s it.”