P.E.O. Record
Hiroshima Gateway To World Peace
Vision of Hiroko Nakamoto (IPS Recipient 1954-55)
On August 6, 1945, Hiroko Nakamoto was a young schoolgirl who endured the horror of nuclear devastation when Hiroshima was leveled by an atomic bomb. Hiroko survived to come to the United States to study and became an Internatio nal Peace Scholarship recipient. She is a celebrated international interior designer. Hiroko believes,
“Today, Hiroshima has risen from the ashes of nuclear destruction and has become a beacon alerting mankind to the horror of nuclear war. Yet the lessons of Hiroshima are fast being forgotten.” For many years, she has strived to fulfill her vision for a peace memorial in her hometown of Hiroshima.
Each day thousands of visitors and commuters pass by the front of the Hiroshima Railway Station. Hiroko’s vision for the Hiroshima Gateway to World Peace is to create a monument to promote peace and a humanity free from nuclear weapons on a strip of land bounded by the railway station and the Enkoh River. In 1983, Hiroko started a fund to initiate the project, and in 2008, the city of Hiroshima dedicated a significant piece of land in front of the Hiroshima Railway Station for her project, and committed to its perpetual upkeep. Hiroko’s vision is now much closer to the realization.
Hiroko states about the project, “The monument will contrast the bucolic nature of Hiroshima today with the devastation and agony of the atomic blasts, followed by rebirth and new development. The Gateway to World Peace monument will become a process of continued teaching and healing. A shining tower in the center of the green space beside the Enkoh River, created by the efforts of people all over the world, will be at the heart of this monument. All people, but especially the young who will be the architects of our future and the bearers of our hopes and dreams, could come here to learn and be motivated to engage in the pursuit of world peace. A memorial alone is not enough. There must be a dedicated effort to educate people and inspire them to take action.” Hiroko has been working with a Japanese glass artist, Kazuhiko Kamiya, to create a kaleidoscope of glass images for the monument symbolizing a hopeful future for world harmony and peace.
What is Hiroko’s story, and how did she become an International Peace Scholarship recipient?
Hiroko NakamotoHiroko Nakamoto said in a book about her childhood, “My Japan 1930–1951,” published by McGraw-Hill in 1970, “War was not new to me. My country had been engaged in war from the time I was one year old. I was 15 when the A bomb fell on the city, and although I was severely burned, my life was spared, but my life was changed forever.”
Hiroko attended the Hiroshima Jogakuin, which was founded in 1886 as Hiroshima Girls Study Society by a Japanese Christian minister, the Rev. Teikichi Sunamaoto, in collaboration with two American Methodist missionaries. Because of the school’s ties to the United States, it suffered during WWII, but after the war reestablished the kindergarten through junior college and then in recent years added a university with a graduate school. Hiroko received her degree in English literature there in 1951. During her study at Jogakuin Junior College she had an opportunity to visit an American style house outside of Hiroshima, and the well organized kitchen with all white counters, electrical appliances and cupboards became her inspiration to improve Japanese kitchens for Japanese women. Through the recommendations of the president of Jogakuin and his associates, Hiroko received many scholarship offers to study in the United States. But Hiroko wanted to apply to schools in the United States on her own merits. She had a pen pal who had written to her about Bowling Green State University in Ohio, so Hiroko applied there and received a scholarship. From 1951 to 1954, she attended Bowling Green State University and received her BA in Fine Arts in January 1954. Hiroko was accepted for graduate study in interior design at the Pratt Institute in New York in the fall.
With free time until September, she wanted to see the west coast of the United States. A couple who had been missionaries in China invited her to visit them in Seattle, where she was asked to speak about her life at several functions, including a P.E.O. chapter meeting. When Hiroko registered at Pratt Institute in September 1954, she was happily surprised to learn that she had received a $1,000 International Peace Scholarship, arranged by the Seattle P.E.O.s. Their kindness was a great joy for her. She wrote, “The scholarship itself assisted me, enabling me to continue my studies, but most of all, the warm hearts of the P.E.O. ladies touched me deeply.”
IPS offered to renew her International Peace Scholarship the next year; however she declined because she was doing practical training with B. Altman’s in New York as part of her studies at the Pratt Institute. After graduating from the Pratt Institute, she studied with architects in Los Angeles and Beirut. She studied on her own in several European countries. She came back to the United States to study western landscape design in San Francisco, and then in 1964 returned to Japan. In 1966, she established her own architectural interior design studio in Tokyo. She has become internationally recognized for her public buildings and private homes. [The P.E.O. Record, March-April, 1996] In 1973, she received the Bowling Green State University’s “Most Distinguished Alumnus Award” and an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts in 1992. She has been most generous to Bowling Green State University, establishing scholarships, the Japanese Study Room and creating the Japanese Tea Ceremony Gallery to promote international understanding and friendship. She has also been generous to the Pratt Institute with a gift to beautify Grand Walk, a section of the Brooklyn campus. “Hiroko is one of Pratt’s most active alumni and most enduring supporter and friend,” says President Thomas F. Schutte. “We are grateful for her dedication to making her alma mater a more verdant and beautiful place for our students, faculty, staff and visitors.”
In 1987, she wrote to Chapter AA in Ohio to express her gratitude for the kindness and encouragement extended to her by P.E.O.s when she had the IPS scholarship, and sent a check for $3,000 to IPS. Then in 1995, Hiroko gave $6,000 to the P.E.O. Scholar Awards, so that, by giving her help to an American or Canadian student, she would complete a circle begun with IPS’s help to her. Hiroko spoke at the Convention of International Chapter in 1995 in Denver, Colorado. After Hiroko’s gift in 1995 to the P.E.O. Scholar Awards, the IPS Board of Trustees created a retrospective display about her life and career, which was displayed at state/provincial/district conventions for several years.
For more information about Hiroko Nakamoto and the Gateway to World Peace project, see: http://hiroshimagatewaytoworldpeace.org for a story of Hiroshima and http://hiroshimagatewaytoworldpeace.org/New_Site/ for information about the memorial.