The Peace Tree from Hiroshima

Average Rating:
5
2 Reviews
TitleThe Peace Tree from Hiroshima
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication2015
AuthorsMoore, Sandra, and Kazumi Wilds
Number of Pages32
PublisherTuttle Publishing
Abstract

This true children's story is told by a little bonsai tree, called Miyajima, that lived with the same family in the Japanese city of Hiroshima for more than 300 years before being donated to the National Arboretum in Washington DC in 1976 as a gesture of friendship between America and Japan to celebrate the American Bicentennial.
URLhttps://www.amazon.com/Peace-Tree-Hiroshima-Little-Bonsai-ebook/dp/B0106P70UG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1513093792&sr=1-1&keywords=peace+tree+hiroshima

Supplemental Contributions

Average Rating:
5
2 Reviews

Reviews for The Peace Tree from Hiroshima

5

Posted By: Douglas R. Martin

Posted On: April 12, 2019

The Peace Tree from Hiroshima
The Little Bonsai Big Story
By Sandra Moore
Illustrated by Kazumi Wilds
Winner of the 2015 Gelett Burgess Award for Best Intercultural Book
Winner of the 2015 Silver Evergreen Medal for World Peace

A children’s story that is told first person from the perspective of a Japanese white pine. The story begins four hundred years ago on the island of Miyajima. The tree is discovered by a man named Itero. He carefully digs up the seedling and brings it home as a souvenir of his time on the magical island.

The story follows the generations that follow as fathers teach sons how to care for the little tree. This picks up with a future generation and man named Masaru. Masaru moves his family to the city of Hiroshima Japan. The little tree and the family survive the atomic bomb.

The city rebuilds and life returns. In 1976, Japan is sending bonsai trees in recognition of the two hundred years birthday of the United States and Masaru wants to include the little white pine tree as part of the gifts. These trees will be housed and cared for at an exhibit in Washington DC at the National Arboretum.

High quality illustrations and very engaging dialogue. This is realistic fiction based on true events and characters. I found it to be a beautiful heartwarming story. I like the way the story approached the dropping of the bomb and the after effects. The war was mentioned in only one sentence. A painting of the plane did not contain marking. It focused on the people and with the tree. Very gentle in the character presentation.

There is a short high-quality glossary and an added information section with photos of bonsai at the end of the book. This would make this book an appropriate addition to an elementary science center. The information section contains added material on bonsais with photos. It also contains update photo and background on the current generation of the family who gifted the tree.

From beginning to end, I found this to be a high-quality engaging story. As a primary teacher, I would recommend this book starting at fourth grade.

Possible lesson integration:

1. Each September we have Grandparents Day at our school. Could see using this book in a cross generational activity. The bonsai tree in this story is tenderly passed from generation. Having the children interview their grandparents about what it was like when they were children. Additionally, having the children ask their grandparents if they have something that belonged or reminds them of their grandparents. I’ll be sharing the story of the plants passes on from my grandmother to my mother to me. Something that connects you with a living heirloom.

2. A second possible lesson could include looking at Bonsai as a living form of art. Looking at actual online photos of bonsai and their stories. How cool when children want to go to the Arboretum in Washington or when they are there with their families and they have knowledgeable questions to ask.

5

Posted By: Barbara McElderry

Posted On: January 15, 2019

Beautifully illustrated and told from the point of view of a bonsai tree, this book introduces children to Hiroshima and a Japanese tradition with the long journey of a bonsai to the U.S. to become a supreme symbol of friendship. The story and the secret delighted hundreds of third grade students in Maryland who were studying Japan in their classes. Afterward, one class took on the training of a bonsai!

Below is an article about the secret Yamaki Pine, aka "The Peace Tree of Hiroshima" which is on display in Washington, D.C.

"On August 6, 1945, at a quarter-past 8 a.m., bonsai master Masaru Yamaki was inside his home when glass fragments hurtled past him, cutting his skin, after a strong force blew out the windows of the house. The U.S. B-29 bomber called the “Enola Gay” had just dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, at a site just two miles from the Yamaki home.

The bomb wiped out 90 percent of the city, killing 80,000 Japanese immediately and eventually contributing to the death of at least 100,000 more. But besides some minor glass-related injuries, Yamaki and his family survived the blast, as did their prized bonsai trees, which were protected by a tall wall surrounding the outdoor nursery.

For 25 years, one of those trees sat near the entrance of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the United States National Arboretum in Washington D.C., its impressive life story largely unknown. When Yamaki donated the now 390-year-old white pine bonsai tree to be part of a 53 bonsais gifted by the Nippon Bonsai Association to the United States for its bicentennial celebration in 1976, all that was really known was the tree’s donor. Its secret would remain hidden until 2001, when two of Yamaki’s grandsons made an unannounced visit to the Arboretum in search of the tree they had heard about their entire lives. Through a Japanese translator, the grandsons told the story of their grandfather and the tree’s miraculous survival. Two years later, Takako Yamaki Tatsuzaki, Yamaki’s daughter also visited the museum hoping to see her father’s tree."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/390-year-old-tree-survived-bombin...