Santa Monica Beach

Postcard US-3841697 to Germany shows a January, 2003 photo at Santa Monica beach near Los Angeles, CA when I was visiting from Florida. The picture was taken on the 100-year-old Santa Monica Pier, looking north. It was fascinating to see beaches on the Pacific Ocean side.

It was before the US-led Iraq invasion in May, 2003. I had just watched the debates about starting the invasion on TV in my hotel room before taking a walk on the pier. In less a month, then US Secretary of State Colin Powell would go to the United Nations Security Council to present his now infamous speech loaded with flaws on February 5, 2003. I can't help but wonder what if we could turn back time and change the course of history?  Without the war, we would be in a much better world today.

Japantown

Outgoing postcard US-3263841 to Philippines shows a photo taken on September 21, 2004, of a crocodile-shaped bench and sculpture at Japantown (日本町) in San Francisco, California, the largest and oldest such enclave in the United States with six street blocks. The card features one of the Gifts of the Friendship stamps that depicts the clock tower outside the National Diet Building in Tokyo, rising behind a foreground of white dogwood flowers.

The area is home to Japanese cuisine restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, banks, bookstores and other shops, with a focal point at the Japan Center, opened in 1968 as part of urban renewal efforts. It is the site of the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival, a two-weekend festival in April, and the Nihonmachi Street Fair in August every year.

The Peace Pagoda, shown in a recent photo on May 30, 2015, is a five-tiered concrete Buddhist stupa that promotes World peace. Designed by Japanese architect Yoshiro Taniguchi, it was presented to San Francisco by the people of Osaka, Japan.

A Postcard to Iran

President Barack Obama spoke with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today, as the Iranian leader was heading to the airport to leave New York after attending the U.N. General Assembly meeting. During his time in the U.S., Mr. Rouhani made a number of public addresses indicating that Iran was open to restoring relationship with the U.S. and resolving conflict around the nuclear program in Iran. It is the first time leaders from the U.S. and Iran have direct communication since the Tehran hostage crisis more than three decades ago in 1979.

I was given an address in Tehran from PostCrossing on August 23, 2013. I hesitated to send out a card for a few days because I didn't want to give a reason to the NSA spying for communicating with people in Iran. However, since we PostCrossers had already been sending out mails oversea for sometime, we would have been targets already if they chose to do so. Traveling postcard US-2379246 shows a pair of table tennis paddles and a Ping-pong ball. Each paddle is decorated with a U.S. national flag and a Chinese national flag respectively. The postcard refers to the Ping-pong diplomacy that started with the exchange of table tennis players between the United States and People's Republic of China in the early 1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.- China relations that had been frozen since 1949 and paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon. If history can be a guide, I am hopeful that an improved U.S - Iran relationship would contribute to the peace and prosperity in the Middle East and the world.

Update: The postcard was sent on September 2, 2013 and received on October 7, 2013.

The Knotted Gun: A Symbol for Peace and Non-Violence

Postcard US-2373509 to Virginia, US shows the knotted gun, a bronze sculpture formally named as Non-Violence" and placed outside the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 1988. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and Nobel Peace Laureate said: “The sculpture Non-Violence has not only endowed the United Nations with a cherished work of art; it has enriched the consciousness of humanity with a powerful symbol that encapsulates, in a few simple curves, the greatest prayer of man; that which asks not for victory, but for peace”. 

The knotted gun was originally created as a memorial tribute to John Lennon for his vision of a world with less violence when he was shot and killed outside his home in New York City on the December 8, 1980. 

In his song Imagine, John Lennon centered around the message of a world without violence and invite you to join the effort for Peace.

“You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I am not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one…”

The Non-Violence sculpture has been placed at more than 30 strategic locations around the world so far, including, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa; and the Peace Park in Beijing, China. If you have a postcard or photo of the knotted gun sculpture in your country, I will appreciate it if you can send a copy to me.

Peace

Postcard US-2378823 to Germany shows a section of the Forbidden City's outer wall and moat at its East Glorious Gate. The photo was taken on October 7, 2007 during my trip to Beijing, China.

The Forbidden City had been the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty for almost 500 years. It is now houses the Palace Museum. Built from 1406 to 1420, the Forbidden City, with 980 buildings on a 720,000 sq m or 7,800,000 sq ft ground, exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture that has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and around the world. 

The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 by UNESCO. The rainbow-colored character on the top right means "PEACE" in Chinese.