Japanese Garden of Peace

Last updated
Japanese Garden of Peace in Fredericksburg, Texas Japanese Garden Of Peace.jpg
Japanese Garden of Peace in Fredericksburg, Texas

The Japanese Garden of Peace is a peace garden installed at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Contents

Background

The Japanese Garden of Peace was designed by Taketora Saita of Tokyo and constructed during 1976 at Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's boyhood home. The Nimitz home is part of the museum complex which includes the National Museum of the Pacific War. [1] [2] The traditional garden is a gift from the people of Japan to the people of America, part of the reconciliation between the United States and Japan and to honor the friendship between Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Heihachiro Togo. [2] [1] [2]

After construction funds were raised in Japan, Japanese craftsmen traveled to Texas to build the garden. [2] The finished, $400,000 renovation was opened and dedicated on the 130th founding of Fredericksburg, May 8, 1976. [2] The Admiral Nimitz Foundation is a member of the North American Japanese Garden Association and employs a full-time, properly trained gardener who maintains the facility. [2]

Design and purpose

Japanese Peace Garden Japanese Peace Garden - Flickr - euthman (1).jpg
Japanese Peace Garden

The National Museum of the Pacific War’s evocative character of war’s destruction and death purposefully stands in juxtaposition of the garden’s quiet setting. [3] Taketora remarked, "It is my hope that as the Admiral Nimitz Park is visited by people from all parts of the world, it will be praised as a small oasis of cool, green beauty in Texas. The prayers of many people, those who gave money as well as those who had a part in building the garden, are directed to this objective." [3]

There are many elements in the garden which contain symbolic meaning. [2] Water features represent such notions as loyalty, purifying actions, and one heart. [2] [3] These representations are achieved through the arrangement and shapes of the various elements. [3] An example of this technique is Taketora’s use of field stones he found in Fredericksburg: he mingled them with various plantings on a furrowed expanse of white pebbles. The furrowed pebbles are to remind one of Pacific Ocean waves and to represent the Pacific Ocean’s joining of Japan and the United States. [3] Pacific islands are symbolized with the field stones. [3]

The locally sourced field stones are also evidence of Taketora’s desire to not overwhelm the garden with Japanese influences. [3] He muted that influence in various ways, including planting a mix of American grown trees which were given by Fredericksburg residents. [3]

A lone, square meditation structure with the qualities of an early 1900s Taisho Era house sits at one end of the park. It is similar to one in the city of Maizuru, Japan. It includes traditional shoji screens and joinery methods done without nails. [3] At one time, the original structure in Maizuru was owned by Admiral Marquis Togo Heihachiro of the Imperial Japanese Navy. [3]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Texas Almanac 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 McBride 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Japan Bullet 2018.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester W. Nimitz</span> United States Navy fleet admiral (1885–1966)

Chester William Nimitz was a fleet admiral in the United States Navy. He played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet, and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillespie County, Texas</span> County in Texas, U.S.

Gillespie County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 26,725. The county seat is Fredericksburg. It is located in the heart of the rural Texas Hill Country in Central Texas. Gillespie is named for Robert Addison Gillespie, a soldier in the Mexican–American War. It is known as the birthplace of 36th president of the United States of America Lyndon B. Johnson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fredericksburg, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Fredericksburg is a city in and the seat of Gillespie County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 Census, this city had a population of 10,875.

Type A Kō-hyōteki-class submarine World War II Japanese submarine class

The Type A Ko-hyoteki class was a class of Japanese midget submarines (Kō-hyōteki) used during World War II. They had hull numbers but no names. For simplicity, they are most often referred to by the hull number of the mother submarine. Thus, the midget carried by I-16-class submarine was known as I-16's boat, or "I-16tou."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tōgō Heihachirō</span> Japanese Marshal Admiral

Tōgō Heihachirō, served as a gensui or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. As Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, he successfully confined the Russian Pacific naval forces to Port Arthur before winning a decisive victory over a relieving fleet at Tsushima in May 1905. Western journalists called Tōgō "the Nelson of the East". He remains deeply revered as a national hero in Japan, with shrines and streets named in his honour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond A. Spruance</span> United States admiral (1886–1969)

Raymond Ames Spruance was a United States Navy admiral during World War II. He commanded U.S. naval forces during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, one of the most significant naval battles of the Pacific Theatre. He also commanded Task Force 16 at the Battle of Midway, comprising the carriers Enterprise and Hornet. At Midway, dive bombers from Enterprise sank four larger carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Most historians consider Midway the turning point of the Pacific War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Hagee</span> United States Marine Corps general

Michael William Hagee is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the 33rd Commandant of the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2006, succeeding General James L. Jones on January 13, 2003. He stepped down as Commandant two months before the end of his four-year term, and was succeeded by General James T. Conway on November 13, 2006. On that date, Hagee had his retirement ceremony just prior to the passage of command ceremony. Hagee retired from the Marine Corps on January 1, 2007.

Nimitz may refer to:

Japanese battleship <i>Mikasa</i> Japanese pre-dreadnought battleship

Mikasa (三笠) is a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s, and is the only ship of her class. Named after Mount Mikasa in Nara, Japan, the ship served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō throughout the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war and the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima. Days after the end of the war, Mikasa's magazine accidentally exploded and sank the ship. She was salvaged and her repairs took over two years to complete. Afterwards, the ship served as a coast-defence ship during World War I and supported Japanese forces during the Siberian Intervention in the Russian Civil War.

Togo is a country in West Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stepan Makarov</span> Russian admiral and scientist (1849–1904)

Stepan Osipovich Makarov was a Russian vice-admiral, commander in the Imperial Russian Navy, oceanographer, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and author of several books. He was a pioneer of insubmersibility theory, and developer of a Cyrillic-based semaphore alphabet. A proponent of icebreaker use, he supervised the first ever polar icebreaker construction. Makarov also designed several ships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yashiro Rokurō</span> Japanese admiral (1860–1930)

BaronYashiro Rokurō was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and Navy Minister, succeeding the last of the Satsuma-era naval leaders of the early Meiji period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Museum of the Pacific War</span> Maritime museum in Texas, United States

The National Museum of the Pacific War is located in Fredericksburg, Texas, the boyhood home of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Nimitz served as commander in chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CinCPAC), and was soon afterward named commander in chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, during World War II. The six-acre site includes the Admiral Nimitz Museum, which is housed in the old Nimitz Hotel and tells the story of Nimitz beginning with his life as a young boy through his naval career as well as the evolution of the old hotel.

Japanese submarine <i>HA. 19</i> IJN submarine beached at Pearl Harbor 1941

HA. 19 is a historic Imperial Japanese Navy Type A Kō-hyōteki-class midget submarine that was part of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. The submarine's crew was ordered to enter Pearl Harbor, attack the moored American warships with its two torpedoes and then scuttle her with explosives. However, the crew was unable to enter the harbor due to navigational difficulties, and the submarine ran aground and was captured by American forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maizuru Naval District</span>

Maizuru Naval District was one of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included the entire Sea of Japan coastline from northern Kyūshū to western Hokkaidō.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Akui</span> United States Army soldier

David Mekaele Akui was an American soldier who became famous for capturing the first Japanese prisoner of war in World War II. At the time, Akui was a corporal in Company G, 298th Infantry Regiment of the Hawaii National Guard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arima Ryōkitsu</span>

Admiral Arima Ryōkitsu was a career naval officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy during Meiji and Taishō periods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homesite of John O. Meusebach</span> Place in Texas, United States

The Homesite of John O. Meusebach is located at Loyal Valley in Mason County, Texas, 21 miles (34 km) north of Fredericksburg and 18 miles (29 km) southeast of the city of Mason, on U.S. Highway 87 to right-of-way at the intersection of US 87 and RM 2242. Meusebach moved to the property in 1869, after a tornado destroyed his family home in Comal County.

Charles Henry Nimitz was born in Bremen, Germany, the son of a merchant seaman. Like his father before him, he was already a veteran seaman before the Nimitz family immigrated to South Carolina in the early 1840s, and later became part of the Adelsverein colonization experiment in the newly annexed state of Texas. He was the grandfather of, and role model for, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. In 1852, he built the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, Texas, in the United States. The hotel he built now houses the National Museum of the Pacific War. The Nimitz Hotel was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1989, Marker number 10089. Nimitz was elected to the Twenty-second Texas Legislature in 1890, representing Gillespie, Comal and Blanco counties, which constituted District 89.

Rear Admiral John Hubbard was an officer in the United States Navy. He fought in the Spanish–American War, played a prominent role in the independence of Panama from Colombia in 1903, and served as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet.

References

Websites

30°16′21″N98°52′00″W / 30.27238°N 98.86675°W / 30.27238; -98.86675