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 

The Schmoe House in Hiroshima Japan

Floyd 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
País: mhomma

Schmoe House attendees and delegates from the USA

Yosh 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
País: mhomma

Dr. Fred Isamu Hasegawa, a hibakusha from Seattle, Washington USA

Fred 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
País: mhomma

Rev. Brooks and Mrs. Corean Andrews

Rev. 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
País: mhomma

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
País: mhomma

"Houses for Hiroshima" built in Minami-machi

There 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
País: mhomma

Model of a Hiroshima house built by volunteers

The 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
País: mhomma

Mr. Koya Azumi talking to Rev. Brooks Andrews

 Mr. 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
País: mhomma

Wilfred P. Schmoe with a photo of his father, Floyd Schmoe

Floyd 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
País: mhomma

Rev. Brooks Andrews in front of a photo of his father, Rev. Emery Andrews

In 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
País: mhomma

Yosh Nakagawa from 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 interned under Executive Order No. 9066. During his internment, Yosh's pastor was Rev. Emery Andrews.
Tomio Moriguchi, Joycie Yee, Haruo Kazama, Herb Tsuchiya

Distinguished special invitees
País: mhomma

Rev. Brooks Andrews, Wilfred P. Schmoe, Yosh Nakagawa

Rev. 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
País: mhomma

Rev. Brooks Andrews presenting his father's records of the initial trip to Hiroshima

Rev. 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
País: mhomma

Houses for Hiroshima Project, 1949

Photo 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
País: mhomma

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mhomma — Última actualización Jun 28 2021 1:49 a.m.


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