A Legacy of Peace
Planted in Our Garden
B y J e s s a G a r d n e r
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 (glh.unitar.org). 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 humankind and the resilience of nature.” 1
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.
In early 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
genera: Camellia, Celtis, Diospyros, Ginkgo
and Ilex. They arrived safely and were received
by Ray Larson, Curator of Living Collections at
the University of Washington Botanic Gardens.
The seeds have germinated, and all the
young plants are being lovingly tended to by UW
Botanic Gardens staff at the Center for Urban
Horticulture until they are large enough to be
planted in the Japanese Garden. Once in the
Garden, the 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.
Reprinted from the “Seattle Japanese Garden
Blog” (www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/blog). m
Jessa Gardner is the programs manager at the
Seattle Japanese Garden.
TOP LEFT: A survivor ginkgo tree in the Shukkeien garden,
Hiroshima. (Photo courtesy Green Legacy Hiroshima)
RIGHT: Seedlings of Gingko biloba, Diospyros kaki
(Japanese persimmon), and Celtis sinensis var. japonica
(Japanese hackberry) in the UW Botanic Gardens greenhouse.
(Photo by Ray Larson)
1
From “About the Green Legacy Hiroshima Initiative,” accessed 4/28/2020,
http://glh.unitar.org/en/about/.
Summer 2020 v 25