Nakashima Foundation for Peace - New Hope Gazette 1987

They came from New Hope and other parts of Bucks County; they came from the streets, the schools, the churches of New York and other parts of the United States; they came from atom-bombed Hiroshima; they came from the Roman Catholic Church and the elected government of Nicaragua.

They came with one common purpose: to promote peace throughout the world.

The center of attention was an 81-year-old American son of native Japanese, and the occasion was the dedication of a magnificently beautiful wooden construction to symbolize the world's aching desire for peace.

The construction was the work of woodworking artist George Nakashima, who, with his wife Marion and daughter Mira (son Kevin came along a few years later) have lived in the New Hope area almost 45 years. They came here from a year's confinement in one of America's infamous internment camps for Americans of Japanese descent.

A new year
But, now, this was New Year's Eve, 1986, the place was the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world—the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the west side of New York's Upper Manhattan. And George Nakashima was there to share a long-held dream of constructing an Altar for Peace made of the most nearly perfect wood he could find—wood from a 125-foot-tall walnut tree, between 200 and 300 years old, that had grown on a Long Island, New York, estate. Nakashima was able to buy the tree's trunk, about 12 feet in length and ranging in width from five to seven feet. He had the trunk sawed lengthwise into three-inch-thick slabs, laid the two slabs from nearest the center side-by-side and had them fastened together with rosewood butterfly inlays to form a surface twelve feet in diameter.

Some 5,000 men, women and children were sitting or standing in the Cathedral, when the Very Reverend James Parks Morton, Dean of the Cathedral, opened the ceremony and the procession, heralded by trumpets and dimmed by a cloud of incense, wound its way through the Cathedral and into the nave, where the Altar was placed. Dean Morton introduced Nakashima with fulsome praise.

Nakashima, short in stature but huge in heart, mind and spirit, spoke of the past, present and what he hopes will be the future.

Man and nature
"The genesis of this Altar for Peace," he said, "Was perhaps a thousand years ago in Japan. The time when the great forests with huge trees existed and the spirit of union of man and nature was deep and real. It developed in the intense skills to bring out these realities.

"What might happen is a revival of this concentration in this country. The actuality is that this altar perhaps could not have been executed in any other society. It required the freedom and openness that exists here.

"It is hoped that this table might become a physical symbol of peace, a peace that is central to our very existence on earth—to sing and chant around it, each in his own tongue—Sanscrit, Latin, Russian, English, Chinese, Japanese—traditional or newly inspired, even far out. To present a rose or lotus on it, with the Indian sense of devotion: returned when dry as a blessing. Or to be piled high with white paper folded cranes as in Hiroshima. Perhaps as an object of pilgrimage, inviting my sadhu friends from India for meditation, or peace groups to gather about, it being a symbol.

Other altars possible
"There is also the thought that other altars can be made as these extraordinary timbers now exist. Perhaps one to go to Russia if there should be such interest.

"Negotiations are under way to send one to Nagasaki as a gift of love and atonement. There is also talk that we might send one to Jerusalem. "May I make a reference to my family Marion, Mira and Kevin, along with many others who have had faith in this project and have labored on it. Also to Jim Radcliffe the master craftsman who was largely responsible to have put it together.

"Peace is much more than an absence of war. It is a creative spirit, a great light that can ultimately take over the world.

"Lead me away from those who rejoice, who talk idly, whose hands are washed in blood to those who have perished in the great cause of love."

Nicaraguan cross
The Altar dedication was the highlight of the Cathedral's Fourth Annual New Year's Eve concert for Peace, but there was more to the program. A Flame from the Peace Shrine in Hiroshima, presented to the Cathedral by UNICEF, a flame that had been carried across America in the Great Peace March in the summer of 1986 to mark the United Nations "Year of Peace," was in place.

And then, there was the dedication of "the Crucifixion of Nicaragua," a 14-foot painted cross commissioned by Sister Luz Beatriz Arellano of the Valdevieso Center in Managua, which was carried in procession on the final day of the 326-kilometer March for Peace and Life on Good Friday 1986. The "Viacrucis" march was led by the Reverend Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, a Roman Catholic priest who is the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua: The cross was dedicated by the Reverend Canon Lloyd Casson, Sub-Dean of the Cathedral.

The ceremony proceeded. There was music by the Orchestra of St. John the Divine, conducted by Michael Barrett, with solos by soprano Christine Seitz, cellist Nathaniel Rosen, soprano Lucy Shelton, tenor Peter Kazaras and Baritone Ben Holt and, as other memorable highlights, remarks by conductor Leonard Bernstein and a Prayer of Dedication by writer Howard Fast.

Reagan castigated
Bernstein spoke of the great promise of the evening and then broke into a "Rap Song," in which he satirically castigated the Reagan administration for neglecting human needs and espousing a foreign policy that threatens the life of mankind.

And this was Howard Fast's Prayer:
Dear God, You have given us this precious jewel,
which we call the Planet Earth.
You made us guardian,
and you gave us the awesome
responsibility of life and death
for all that lives on this our Planet Earth.
We have done poorly in our sponsorship.
We have hated and murdered and stained this place
with rivers of blood.
We have put over us men who worship war,
ennoble killing, and lacerate the brotherhood of man without pity or end.
Now we gather together to save our birthplace,
the Planet Earth,
to hold back the atomic doom
that the madmen among us threaten.
We are many,
We are a brotherhood and a sisterhood of millions,
and if you give us the time, we will
somehow find the strength
to put an end to the awful threat of atomic weapons.
Only give us the time and give us faith in ourselves.
We come to pray, not as supplicants but with the knowledge
that our destiny must be of our own making.
Thus our prayer is also a pledge that we will not rest until there is peace on earth.

'Hope after all?'
The Cathedral lights were dimmed. Flickers of candlelight appeared; their number grew until the thousands of glowing wicks cast a mystical light over the nave. The great folk singer, Odetta, rose from her seat to sing Amazing Grace and This Little Light of Mine. Then there was silence. Spectators and participants looked at each other wordlessly; many of them, unashamedly, dabbed at their eyes. A New Hope artist said to her companion: "Never...never have I had such a glorious experience. Maybe there's hope for the world after all."

***
George, Marion, daughter Mira Nakashima-Yarnall, son Kevin and Mira's children—Maria, Misha, Satoru and Shanti Amagasu—were accompanied by more than 40 of their friends on a chartered 49-seater Starr bus. They left the Nakashima complex on Aquetong Road at about 4:15 Wednesday afternoon, stopped at Somerville to each gourmet box lunches prepared by Mother's and arrived at the Cathedral at about 6:20. Long lines had been formed in front of and around the corners of the Cathedral by people hoping to get seats or standing room. Those who accompanied the Nakashimas as their guests on the bus included Betty Augenblick, Ruth and Tony Burton, Ralph and Glenda LangeBye, James and Jean Demopoulos, John and Rita Durrant, James and Kitty Flood, Sister Francesca, Tony Granados, Margaret Kelley, RoyandYuri Kita, Mr. and Mrs. Kramer, Joseph Mikita, Mary and Tom Murakima, David Nash, Jim and Mary Radcliffe, Herb and Leah Riband, Tom Rosso, Francis Wainwright, Franca Warden, Bob and Mary Whittemore, Jon Yarnall (Mira's husband), Maggie and Rick Yarnall and Keri Brenner. The bus left New York for the return trip at 9:30 and arrived at the Nakashima home at the stroke of midnight, Ferol Smith, who, with her husband, William A. Smith, had just returned from a long trip to China and felt too tired to make the New York trip, had the makings of a party under way. The participants toasted the New Year, toasted peace and toasted each other, And they toasted George Nakashima, who had a dream and made that dream come through—a man who has had many dreams and still has dreams—the kind of dreams Norman Corwin had in mind when, in his epic 1945 poem titled On a Note of Triumph, he wrote: "Post proofs that brotherhood is not so wild a dream as those who profit by postponing it pretend... "That man unto his fellow man shall be a friend forever."

Copyright © 2000 The Nakashima Foundation For Peace
www.nakashimafoundation.org
a 501C3 non-profit organization
1847 Aquetong Road
New Hope, PA 18938
E-Mail The Nakashima Foundation
Contact the webmaster