The Japanese Garden of Peace

The National Museum of the Pacific War, a US national museum and affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is located in Fredericksburg Texas, at the family home of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who led the United States Navy as Allied Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet during the Second World War (the naval equivalent to General Eisenhower's Supreme Allied Commander rank).

The museum is phenomenal! From what I understand, the current, modern buildings and galleries are all relatively new. It's a wonderful museum that tells the story of the Pacific Theater of the Second World War, starting with background tensions between China, Japan, Korea, and Russia from the past few centuries to supply context to the greater conflict.

It took about three hours to walk through the museum - longer than we expected, but worth every minute. By the time we had walked through the galleries dedicated to Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, the development and implementation of the atomic bombs, and more, it was already early evening. We hadn't planned to spend any time in Fredericksburg, but we ended up having so much fun in the cool little German-Texas town, that we decided to change our plans.

There was one last thing I wanted to see before we drove into Austin for the night. Just next door to the museum, in a small piece of land at the Nimitz estate, was a quiet Japanese garden, given by the people of Japan as a symbol of peace and friendship.

The Japanese Garden of Peace was designed by Taketora Saita of Tokyo and constructed during 1976 at Nimitz's boyhood home. The garden is a traditional gift of peace from the people of Japan to the people of the United States, and was given to honor the postwar reconciliation and friendship between the two nations.

The Garden of Peace is almost silent, and perfectly tranquil. It is one of the best examples of a real tritonal Japanese garden in the United States, and the North American Japanese Garden Association has assigned a full-time gardener, properly trained in Japan, to maintain it.

The design of the garden is highly symbolic. The raked rock garden, with its swirling piles of white pebbles, represents the sea. The large black stones represent the Pacific islands. By using the Pacific as the main symbolic feature of the garden, the architect was symbolizing the physical space that joins the United States and Japan.

Likewise, in order to utilize Japanese techniques with American landscape, the garden features American trees and plants, donated by local Fredericksburg families.

A small wooden meditation pavilion sits by a water feature. Made in the traditional style without the use of a single nail, the pavilion is representative of the peace and understanding between the two countries. It is modeled after an Edo-period meditation pavilion located in Maizuru, Japan, which was once owned by Admiral Marquis Togo Heihachiro of the Imperial Japanese Navy, a personal friend of Admiral Nimitz, and one with whom he shared a great deal of mutual respect.