Photo & Text © 2011 Kim- Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, alteration, reproduction or republishing in any media.
Seattle's Peace Park was dedicated in 1990 and features this charming statue of Sadako Sasaki by Seattle sculptor Daryl Smith (who also cast the Jimi Hendrix sculpture on Broadway at Pine).
At age two, Sadako survived the atomic blast that destroyed her home in Hiroshima. She died at age 11, though--one of thousands of children who became ill with radiation related leukemia. Her classmates and children from all over Japan raised funds for a Children's Peace Memorial, dedicated in her honor on Children's Day in May of 1959. It stands in Hiroshima's Peace Park. Sadako completed folding 1000 origami cranes while in hospital in hopes of obtaining a wish for healing, and kept making more until shortly before her death two months later.
Dr. Floyd Schmoe, an amazingly accomplished and inspiring Seattlite who served as the first naturalist at Mount Rainier, helped establish and fund Seattle's Peace Park along with other members of University Friends Meeting (Society of Friends, Quaker). He had gone to Hiroshima right after WWII to build houses for the homeless, just one of his many activities in a lifelong dedication to peace and social justice. The UW professor lived to be 105, and I hope you will take a moment to read about his truly remarkable and adventurous life here. It made my jaw drop in admiration.
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