Volunteer Leaders

John Mensing

Director for Historical Studies and Chugoku Community Programs

John Fredrick Mensing, Jr. moved to Hiroshima in 1996, continuing there a relationship with Kazuko Yoshimura, a relationship which had begun in China, where both were working as University lecturers. He has reared two children, spent seven years in Sri Lanka, five in Korea, three in China and one in India, and has visited Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia and the Philippines for conferences or research work. John did his Ph.D. studies in Buddhism and Pali at the University of Peradeniya and his M.Phil. studies in Christian Theology at Emory. He currently directs Hiroshima’s Historiographers Club, an outreach project of the Sanyo Rai Foundation, which meets weekly at Hiroshima’s Peace Park to read academic articles with a view toward developing “look afresh” narratives. One of his notable accomplishments was organising a 2007 conference with H.H. the Dalai Lama in Hiroshima, an outgrowth of the year he spent doing social work in Dharamshala. As YCAPS expands to incorporate both the Iwakuni base personnel and the local 自衛隊 JSDF, he will be assisting in community organising, his field of expertise.