Peace Park (Seattle)
Peace Park is a park located in the University District of Seattle, Washington, at the corner of N.E. 40th Street and 9th Avenue N.E., at the northern end of the University Bridge. Its construction conceived and led by Floyd Schmoe, winner of the 1988 Hiroshima Peace Prize, and dedicated on August 6, 1990, 45 years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, it is home to a full-size bronze statue of Sadako Sasaki sculpted by Daryl Smith. After the statue was vandalized in December 2003,[1] a number of people, including Sadako's family, requested the statue be relocated to the more heavily trafficked Green Lake Park. Ultimately the Seattle Parks Department decided the statue should remain in the Peace Park, and upon restoration was returned there in mid-January 2005.
The statue was vandalized again in September, 2012 but has been repaired.
Schoolchildren and others from around the city of Seattle and elsewhere frequently drape strings of peace cranes on the statue apparently following the Japanese custom of the 'Thousand Origami Cranes'.
References
- Vandalized statue of A-bomb victim repaired August 4, 2004 Japan Times Retrieved October 30, 2015
External links
- Seattle Peace Park, information from the City of Seattle's government site.
- Sadako statue on Daryl Smith's website portfolio.
- News account of 2012 vandalism.