One of Linda Fujikawa’s life missions is to teach her students to see beyond themselves and to understand the importance of forgiveness and peace.

The Kapiolani Community College educator is one of three people who will be honored as a Hero of Forgiveness Sunday, Aug. 2 at the 13th annual Hawaii International Forgiveness Day. A few hundred are expected to attend the Hawaii Forgiveness Project’s free interfaith event from 3 to 6 p.m. at Kawaiaha’o Church.

It will focus on the 70th anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to the end of World War II in 1945. Ceremonies will conclude with a procession to the Nagasaki Peace Bell, next to Honolulu Hale, with music, invocation, prayer and silence. Visit hawaiiforgivenessproject.org for more details.

Others to be honored with the Hero of Forgiveness award are Matt Taufetee, an ex-convict who helps prisoners transition back into the community; and Bishop Larry Silva, who has led the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu through 10 years of historic achievements as well as controversy.

Fujikawa designed the course for students from Japan and others who are fluent in Japanese. One class excursion that’s particularly eye-opening is a trip to the USS Arizona Memorial and other World War II exhibits at Pearl Harbor. Young people are unaware of the hatred between the Japanese and Americans at the time and don’t grasp the repercussions of that war, but they end up with more of an understanding of their nations’ former enemies.

"If you just see only one perspective, let’s say from Japan’s side, then you only see we were justified to attack Pearl Harbor," she said. But at the war museum, she points out some of the people killed were innocent women and children, and that innocent Americans of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. were put into internment camps. After a visit, one of her students from Japan told her, "I feel so guilty," as if everyone at the memorial were staring at him, she said.

She encourages her students to "get beyond that and see through the eyes of the other," replacing feelings of guilt or hatred with respect for different points of view. Fujikawa added, "I love this because you see the transformation at the end of the semester."

"Let us cross over the world of self to build upon the heart of humanity," she said, quoting from her acceptance speech when receiving a U.S. Peace Corps award in 2008 for continued outstanding service to the community.

"My path of life has been from war because I’m a result of war. My dad was a local boy, saw Pearl Harbor (attacked), fought in the 100th (Battalion, consisting of Japanese-Americans), and helped to engineer reconstruction in Japan, building bridges, roads. And that led him to marry my mom, a total enemy. Her parents forbade them to marry, so they eloped and here we are," she said with a laugh. "My brother is a foreign service officer and I’m a teacher, and we’re making bridges of peace."

MATT TAUFETEE

As a member of Word of Life, Taufetee has helped about 200 former prisoners recover from addiction, obtain employment, and transition back into society since he formed First LAP (Life After Prison) in 2002. He also manages a transition house for parolees at his father’s church, Pacific Islanders United Methodist Church in Palolo; and leads Alcoholics Anonymous programs at two prisons.

His life’s work involves "loving other people when they can’t love themselves." He ministers from the vantage point of someone who endured beatings and bullying throughout his youth, joined a violent gang, and became addicted to alcohol and drugs. When he was 20, he went to prison for killing a man; the man’s brother then killed Taufetee’s brother in revenge.

When Taufetee was paroled after four years, he resumed his old lifestyle. The turning point came after "a couple of men beat me and left me for dead in the gutter." Taufetee’s aunt took him in and started each day telling him how much Jesus loved him.

One day in 1996, "I broke down on my knees" and said he turned his life over to the Lord because "an innocent man (Jesus) sacrificed his life for a person like me. So I thought, why can’t I do that for other people. Forgiveness becomes easier the more you practice it."

Burdened with years of bitterness toward the man who killed his brother, Taufetee was finally able to forgive him, and is counseling him and other family members.