Where will Seattle's bronze "Sadako and the Thousand Cranes" statue finally call home?
The statue has been in storage at the Ballard Foundry since last December, when it was severely vandalized. While it did make a brief appearance for the From Hiroshima to Hope lantern-floating ceremony in August, the statue has been mostly out of public view.
Before it could be returned to its home at the tiny Peace Park near the northwest end of the University Bridge, Seattle Parks and Recreation received a proposal to move the statue to Green Lake Park, where the annual lantern-floating ceremony takes place.
While the Board of Park Commissioners contemplates its recommendation to parks Superintendent Ken Bounds before Thursday, Oct. 14, two opposing sides are debating where to place this international symbol of peace.
The legacy
Over the summer, Michiko Pumpian, executive director of the World Peace Project for Children, which helped to raise money to repair the "Sadako" statue after it was vandalized, proposed moving the sculpture to the northwest corner of Green Lake Park. There, it would be seen by thousands of people who could appreciate and protect it, she said.
But some say Peace Park and the "Sadako" statue are synonymous.
Peace activist and Quaker Floyd Schmoe had purchased the small plot of land near the University Friends Meetinghouse, 4001 Ninth Ave. N.E., for the statue's current site with the money he received with the Hiroshima Peace Prize in 1990. He then applied for a Sound Ideas grant through the Fratelli Bros. Ice Cream Co. to commission Daryl Smith to create the sculpture for the park.
"The statue was designed as part of the park," lifelong Quaker Merlin Rainwater contends. "To take the statue way from the park would be taking something away from the community. Floyd wanted [the statue] for the Quakers - to honor us. He designed the park so when we sit in our worship room, we can look out the south window and see the park and the statue."
"[To] prevent vandalism is an absolute meaningless excuse," she continued. "I won't be able to admire a paper crane from my worship room."
Rainwater recommends that a replica of the "Sadako" statue be made for Green Lake Park because, as she surmises, Schmoe would say, "Let's take this opportunity to make a second park, but don't take apart the one I made."
Another Quaker, Donald Sullivan, agreed with Rainwater's sentiment: "I would rather have [the statue] stay where it was intended. It has ties to the park. It's the centerpiece of the park, in a sense."
However, Pumpian believes the "Sadako" statue represents a small part of what Schmoe accomplished during his 105 years.
"It's more significant to have Floyd's legacy there [at Peace Park] than Sadako's legacy," she asserted. "Floyd Schmoe's legacy is his whole life. It's not just [about] the 'Sadako' statue.... He didn't even meet Sadako."
Longtime Quaker Bill Hanson argued, "The Quaker objection is more emotional [than rational]."
He said he's been telling people that Peace Park would multiply in size and that Schmoe's name wouldn't disappear with the statue's relocation. He explained that there would be two plaques with Schmoe's name on them, one at each site. And, he said, plans exist for another sculpture that could take the "Sadako" statue's place at Peace Park: a bronze and stone "paper crane" that would less likely be vandalized.
With the "Sadako" statue at Green Lake, "scores, maybe hundreds, of people could see it....,"he said, while "the [Peace Park] location is just awful - a tiny triangle [of land], with cars rushing by."
The statue's safety
Pumpian maintains that Schmoe would have "definitely, definitely" wanted to move the statue to Green Lake Park because he wanted people to view the statue and learn its message of peace and hope.
She recalls Schmoe commenting on the statue's safety at Peace Park: "I am so surprised that [the] 'Sadako' [statue] has not gotten hurt yet," he would say. "It's really strange that Sadako is not damaged."
According to parks department strategic advisor Paula Hoff, "There's no reason to believe [the statue] would be any safer at Green Lake." With more people at the lake, she explained, there would be more opportunities for people to vandalize it. "Some people would argue there are people on [its current] site 24 hours a day."
Besides, she added, "The statue was made for the park. It would be unfair to take it away."
"Sadako" sculptor Daryl Smith has stayed out of the discussion, saying, "I'm happy to put [the statue] in where they want me to put it in.... I have no stake in it anymore."
While he does, however, lean toward placing the statue in Green Lake Park, he said he is concerned about "not leaving Peace Park totally empty. Without its centerpiece, [the park] has no power."
He added that he wouldn't mind creating another sculpture - whether it be a second "Sadako" or a crane: "Having two Peace Parks is better than one."
Peter Morse, owner of the former Fratelli Bros. Ice Cream Co., said he is "quite ambivalent" about Pumpian's proposal. Before awarding Schmoe the grant for the statue's commission, Morse reasoned for a more-trafficked area, like Green Lake Park, for the statue's location. But "at the time, [Schmoe] wouldn't consider other places.... [But] who knows [what he'd do] now?"
He believes that the decision to move the statue doesn't lie with the parks department, but the Quakers, since the group owns the statue, he said.
"The Quaker community should be driving this," Morse said, not "interlopers" coming in 14 years later.
Ultimately, though, he said, the parks board will "make a decision that's good for the statue."
What's ahead
At a public hearing on Sept. 23, the parks department staff made its recommendation to the Board of Park Commissioners to keep the "Sadako" statue at Peace Park.
The Board of Park Commissioners is scheduled to vote and make its recommendation on the proposal to move the statue to Green Lake Park during its next meeting, on Thursday, Oct. 14. It then goes to parks Superintendent Ken Bounds, who will decide where its permanent home will be before the end of November, when the statue is scheduled to be installed.
Peace Park is scheduled for improvements through the Pro Parks Levy. Landscaping is scheduled for 2006, with other area improvements also planned, Hoff said.
Whichever site is selected for the "Sadako" statue, Pumpian said she will be "fine with it," though she won't campaign again if the statue were to remain at Peace Park and get vandalized once more, because of the time involved in such a venture. She does, however, intend to continue educating others about Sadako's legacy.
The children's singer and songwriter is traveling to Japan later this month to personally thank the people there for their support of the "Sadako" statue, particularly after it was vandalized, with 10 events in Tokyo and Hiroshima. On Oct. 25, the anniversary of Sadako Sasaki's death, Pumpian will sing her song "Sadako and the 1,000 Paper Cranes" at the base of Hiroshima's "Children of the Bomb," the original "Sadako" statue, to carry on Sadako's legacy.
Hillary Rossi contributed to this story.
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