By Loretta Yajima

In this age of global conflicts and terrorism, one wonders whether world peace is possible.

As a generation that was shaped by the hope that peace was possible, it is ironic that today the idealism that once defined us as a generation has been snuffed out of many of us by what is happening in the world today.

Yet we must not bring children into this world without hope, because that is where our hope for world peace lies: in their hands.

World peace results from learning about people and about differences, and learning about tolerance and empathy. It comes from replac- ing fear of things we don’t understand with knowledge and compassion.

Like most children’s museums across the United States, ours is a reflection of its surrounding community and the families it serves.

Hawaii has been a beacon of hope, opportunity and new beginnings since the early Polynesians sailed their double-hulled canoes onto its shores. The islands, a magnet attracting immigrants from both East and West, are one of the most culturally diverse states, and cultural diversity can be seen everywhere.

To grow up here as keiki o ka aina, is to experience cultural diversity at its most intense level. While far from perfect, Hawaii is a place where people have learned to live together — not by just accepting and respecting their differences, but by celebrating them. Even our youngest have an intimate and intuitive sense of their culturally diverse world.

This is what visitors find reflected in the center, where we celebrate our cultural diversity.

Here, grandparents are reminded of plantation days and can share recollections with their grandchildren.

Here children can learn the value and richness that comes with diversity and how geography, geology and the natural world around them affected and influenced our history.

On an island, everything and everyone is closely interrelated and inter-dependent, and the fragility of the human condition can be more than offset by the tremendous strength that we can gather together.

There’s a sign in the center’s lobby that reads, “The Children of Hawaii, Hawaii’s rainbow connection to the world.”

We believe our keiki o ka aina have much to offer to the rest of the world, and they are truly special. That’s why we are so passionate about educating our keiki. That is why Hawaii is hosting an international meeting here in the fall where we can share the meaning of aloha with colleagues from across the globe.

They will come to see and experience how our sense of aloha and our multicultural society here in Hawaii has shaped us as it will the children of our children.

“Peace with the Heart of Aloha,” the convening theme for the Asia Pacific Children’s Museum Conference being held in Hawaii Oct. 19-21, is an opportunity for educators and children’s museum professionals to come together to discuss common issues and to see and experience how our sense of aloha and our multicultural society here in Hawaii can have a positive impact on the world beyond our island shores.

We have a mission to nurture and inspire children and to help their families and teachers nurture all that is potentially good and wonderful in them.

We want to remind them to take pride in who they are, and to hopefully spark a desire in them to share all that they have to offer to their community and the rest of the world — a world anchored by aloha and secured in peace.