Peace Boat is a Japan-based international non-governmental and non-profit organisation that works to promote peace, human rights, equality, sustainable development, and respect for the environment.  Currently, the organisation carries out its main activities through a chartered passenger ship, the Ocean Dream, which travels the world on peace voyages.

The Peace Boat first visited Da Nang in 1995.  Since then, the ship has arrived in Da Nang 35 times during its 80 around-the-world voyages.  The ship usually carries between 800 and 1,000 passengers on each visit, mainly people from Japan but also from other countries around the world.

The Peace Boat

During their stay in Da Nang, the visiting guests usually become actively involved in exchange programmes with many local young people, as well as enjoy the local cuisine and buy local specialities.  In addition, a group of Japanese folk artistes onboard the ship treat local residents to fascinating traditional arts performances.

Over the past 19 years, the Da Nang Youth Federation (DYF) and the city’s branch of the Viet Nam-Japan Friendship Association (VJFA) have acted as friendly partners of Peace Boat.  They have jointly organised numerous exchange activities in the city during the period.  Most notable were a forum in 2007 on Agent Orange (AO), a bitter legacy of the war, and its aftermaths, and in 2010 a seminar on nuclear disarmament and how to create a peaceful, nuclear-free world.  In 2011, an exchange meeting was organised between local children and Japanese junior high school students from Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture.  Last year an exchange programme took place between local AO victims and Hibakusha, who are the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities in Japan.  In addition to its meaningful  programmes, the Japanese organisation has also donated numerous bikes, wheelchairs, learning tools, musical instruments and other gifts to local disadvantaged children.

Over the past 19 years, Peace Boat has brought many peace-loving people from around the world to Da Nang, as well as received a message of peace from the city and conveyed it to other parts of the world where the chartered ship visits.  The DYF and the city’s branch of the VJFA will always be close companions of the Japanese organisation. 

Next year will mark the 20^th anniversary of the first visit to Da Nang of the Peace Boat.  A series of activities will be organised in the city in order to advertise the city’s image, as well as to show a strong desire for a world of friendship and peace amongst local citizens and international friends.