The Schmoe House, Houses for Hiroshima Project, Grand Opening Ceremony - Hiroshima, Japan
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The Schmoe House, Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan.
An exhibition facility affiliated with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
On 5 September 2012, Hiroshima City decided to turn Schmoe House, a branch of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, in Eba-nihonmatsu, Naka-ku, which was originally built for hibakusha by volunteers led by Floyd Schmoe (1895-2001), a special honorary citizen, into an exhibition facility affiliated to Peace Memorial Museum. It opened on 1 November 2012, and introduce foreigners and Japan volunteers who helped Hiroshima in postwar years of recovery. The Grand Opening ceremony also commemorated a group of Seattle volunteers who traveled to Hiroshima to build houses in the wake of the atomic bomb more than 60 years ago.
The Schmoe House was built in 1951 as a wooden bungalow with floor space of 55 m2. It displays picture panels and other things to honor achievements of Floyd Schmoe, Dr. Marcel Junod and others. Many young Japanese volunteers from Tokyo and Hiroshima joined the project. While in Hiroshima, the volunteers lived at a church headed by a Methodist minister, Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto.
The Schmoe House is the only remaining one among the 21 houses the volumteers built from 1949 to 1953 with the money donated in the U.S. as a house or a meeting place for hibakusha (A-Bomb survivors). Houses were also built in Nagasaki, the other city that suffered a nuclear attack. Rev. Brooks Andrews said his father returned to Japan in 1951 or 1952 to help with the Nagasaki effort.
Floyd Schmoe first traveled to Hiroshima in 1949 to build houses for bombing survivors as part of a four-person delegation that included Rev. Emery Andrews, a longtime pastor of Seattle's Japanese Baptist Church, and Ms. Daisy Tibbs-Dawson, who still lives in Seattle. The fourth delegation member was Ms. Ruth Jenkins.
Yosh Nakagawa and Rev. Emery Andrews' son, Pastor Brooks Andrews, (who is the interim senior minister Seattle Japanese Baptist Church) traveled from Seattle to Hiroshima for the opening of Schmoe House. Members of Schmoe's family, friends of Mr. Nakagawa and Rev. Andrews, and a number of Japanese Americans also attended the opening.
Slides in this album |
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The Schmoe House in Hiroshima JapanFloyd Schmoe came up with a plan to build houses for people in Hiroshima. This project was called "Houses for Hiroshima", and it resulted in houses and other forms of compensation for people suffering due to the bombing. To implement this project, the Friends Pacific Yearly Meeting and the Japan …
The Schmoe House in Hiroshima Japan |
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Schmoe House attendees and delegates from the USAYosh Nakagawa, a longtime leader in the Japanese Baptist Church as well as in sports and business and Rev. Emory Andrews' son, Pastor Brooks Andrews, (who is the interim senior minister at the church on Broadway just south of Seattle University) traveled to Hiroshima for the opening of Schmoe House. …
Schmoe House attendees and delegates from the USA |
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Dr. Fred Isamu Hasegawa, a hibakusha from Seattle, Washington USAFred is a hibakusha. Before the outbreak of World War II, he moved to Hiroshima with his family from Hawaii. After the war, he returned to the United States to pursue his education. Fred has family living in the Hiroshima area.
Dr. Fred Isamu Hasegawa, a hibakusha from Seattle, Washington USA |
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News media coverage at the Schmoe House Grand Opening Ceremony
News media coverage at the Schmoe House Grand Opening Ceremony |
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Rev. Brooks and Mrs. Corean AndrewsRev. Brooks Andrews is currently the Interim Pastor of Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle, Washington. He is the son of Rev. Emery Andrews who was Pastor of Japanese Baptist Church during the World War II period. Rev. Emery Andrews came over with Flyod Schmoe …
Rev. Brooks and Mrs. Corean Andrews |
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Sue and Yosh Nakagawa with Dr. Fred Hasegawa Yosh and Sue are members of Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle, Washington. Yosh has made all the US contacts for this event. Yosh is a personal friend of JoAnn and Larry Sims, current Directors of the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima. As a boy, Yosh was …
Sue and Yosh Nakagawa with Dr. Fred Hasegawa |
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Dr. Fred Hasegawa reunited with a Hiroshima High School classmateSchmoe House Grand Opening Ceremony
Dr. Fred Hasegawa reunited with a Hiroshima High School classmate |
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Wilfred P. Schmoe speaking at the Grand Opening ceremony
Wilfred P. Schmoe speaking at the Grand Opening ceremony |
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Media coverage at the Schmoe House Grand Opening CeremonyNews media coverage at the Schmoe House Grand Opening Ceremony
Media coverage at the Schmoe House Grand Opening Ceremony |
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Yosh and Sue Nakagawa at the Schmoe House opening
Yosh and Sue Nakagawa at the Schmoe House opening |
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Mitch at the Schmoe House
Mitch at the Schmoe House |
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Rev. Brooks and Mrs. Corean Andrews at the Schmoe House
Rev. Brooks and Mrs. Corean Andrews at the Schmoe House |
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"Houses for Hiroshima" built in Minami-machiThere were applications for housing from 3,800 families when the first houses were finished in Minami-machi although the city could only select four families.
"Houses for Hiroshima" built in Minami-machi |
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Model of a Hiroshima house built by volunteersThe houses included a kitchen, bathroom, and two Japanese-style rooms, six-tatami mat in size. "Houses for Hiroshima" started with the construction of two semi-detached tenement houses on a municipal housing site in Minami-machi. Construction carried on through the summer heat with the help of friends and associates.
Model of a Hiroshima house built by volunteers |
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Mr. Koya Azumi talking to Rev. Brooks AndrewsMr. Azumi was on the original Hiroshima Houses project for two summers. After the second summer he joined Floyd on the boat across the Pacific. He became a college professor in the US until returning to Tokyo care for his parents.
Mr. Koya Azumi talking to Rev. Brooks Andrews |
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Wilfred P. Schmoe with a photo of his father, Floyd SchmoeFloyd Schmoe came up with a plan to build houses for people in Hiroshima. This project was called "Houses for Hiroshima", and it resulted in houses and other forms of compensation for people suffering due to the bombing. To fund the project that he dubbed "Houses for Hiroshima," Floyd and …
Wilfred P. Schmoe with a photo of his father, Floyd Schmoe |
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Rev. Brooks Andrews in front of a photo of his father, Rev. Emery AndrewsIn the summer of 1949, Schmoe, Rev. Emery Andrews, Daisy Tibbs-Dawson, and Ruth Jenkins, sailed to Japan with building materials and food and medical supplies for the Hiroshima hospital. With the assistance of many Japanese volunteers, and some skilled craftsmen whom they paid, the group built two duplexes to house …
Rev. Brooks Andrews in front of a photo of his father, Rev. Emery Andrews |
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Yosh Nakagawa from Seattle WashingtonYosh has made all the US contacts for this event. Yosh is a personal friend of JoAnn and Larry Sims, current Directors of the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima. As a boy, Yosh was interned under Executive Order No. 9066. During his internment, Yosh's pastor was Rev. Emery Andrews.
Distinguished special invitees |
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Schmoe family members at the evening celebrationLynne Marie Higerd, Lee Schmoe, Wilfred P. Schmoe at the evening celebration at the Hiroshima …
Schmoe family members at the evening celebration |
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Rev. Brooks Andrews, Wilfred P. Schmoe, Yosh NakagawaRev. Brooks Andrews is the son of Rev. Emery Andrews. Wilfred Schmoe is the son of Floyd Schmoe. Their father came to Hiroshima in 1949 to start the Houses for Hiroshima project. Yosh and Sue are members of Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle, Washington. Yosh has made all the US …
Rev. Brooks Andrews, Wilfred P. Schmoe, Yosh Nakagawa |
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Rev. Brooks Andrews presenting his father's records of the initial trip to HiroshimaRev. Brooks Andrews, interim senior pastor at Japanese Baptist Church, presented records of the 1949 trip Andrews' father, Rev. Emery "Andy" Andrews made to Hiroshima with Floyd Schmoe, Daisy Tibbs-Dawson, and Ruth Jenkins.
Rev. Brooks Andrews presenting his father's records of the initial trip to Hiroshima |
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Wilfred Schmoe donating a portrait of his father Flyod Schmoe
Wilfred Schmoe donating a portrait of his father Flyod Schmoe |
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World Friendship Center staff and volunteers
World Friendship Center staff and volunteers |
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World Friendship Center, Hiroshima, Japan |
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Houses for Hiroshima Project, 1949Photo sent to Rev. Masahiko Wada at Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle, WA in 1949. Famed photo donated to Schmoe House Museum on 31 October 2012 in Hiroshima Japan.
Houses for Hiroshima Project, 1949 |
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