A Legacy of Peace, Planted in Our Garden
by Jessa Gardner
GLH Initiative seedlings, photo courtesy of Ray Larson
As part of the Seattle Japanese Garden’s 60th anniversary celebration, we are excited to announce a new partnership with the Green Legacy Hiroshima (GLH) Initiative. The history of the Seattle Japanese Garden is a beautiful story of collaboration between Japan and Seattle, and we honor that long history with this new project to bring GLH Initiative plants to our garden.
“The GLH Initiative is a global volunteer campaign, aiming to disseminate the universal message of trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Created in 2011 by two friends, Nassrine Azimi and Tomoko Watanabe, GLH shares worldwide the double message of caution and hope that the unique survivor trees of Hiroshima (and ultimately Nagasaki) represent, recalling on the one hand the dangers of arms of mass destruction and nuclear weapons in particular, and on the other hand the sacred character of mankind and the resilience of nature.”[i]
Our garden is the first in the Pacific Northwest to join this global partnership. By growing the offspring of survivor plants propagated by GLH, we commemorate the lives lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and become an ambassador for the initiative’s message of peace and love of the natural world.
Earlier in 2019, volunteer Susan Ott Ralph recommended this project, and reached out to the Green Legacy Hiroshima Initiative about participating. Susan was inspired by a visit to the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden, where she encountered some “peace trees” with a plaque describing their history. Luckily, Arboretum Foundation board member Noriko Palmer was planning to visit Japan in autumn, and was able to arrange a meeting in Hiroshima with GHL volunteers to discuss the project in person. The GLH sent us seeds from five different tree species: Camellia, Celtis, Diospyros, Ginkgo, and Ilex. The plants arrived safely and were received by Ray Larson of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens.
All of the plants are being lovingly tended by horticulturists from UW Botanic Gardens and Seattle Parks and Recreation, as well as volunteers from the Arboretum Foundation’s Pat Calvert Greenhouse, until they are large enough to be planted in the Japanese Garden. Once in the Garden, these plants will be marked with plaques detailing their important history.
As soon as it is reasonable to do so, we will hold a ceremony to acknowledge and formally accept these trees into the Garden.
GLH Initiative seeds, photo courtesy of Ray Larson
[i] “About the Green Legacy Hiroshima Initiative” Green Legacy Hiroshima, accessed 4/28/2020, http://glh.unitar.org/en/about/