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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
November 2002 |
Hiroshima survivor brings message
of thanks and peace to Hoosier UMs
By Lynne DeMichele
Hoosier UM News Editor
INDIANAPOLIS -- As a 15-year-old schoolgirl in the Jogakuin Methodist Mission School in Japan, Hiroko Nakamoto and her schoolmates were about one mile from ground zero when Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1943. While thousands were killed, including friends and family members when the first weapon of mass destruction was delivered, Hiroko was lucky. She was also full of hope -- and ambition.
A Methodist missioner from Indiana, the Rev. Odle, befriended her and brought her desire to study in the U.S. to the attention of the Board of Education of the, then, North West Indiana Conference. With their help, Hiroko was able to come to America in 1954 to study interior design. Her goal: to improve the Japanese kitchen.
Following her studies, Nakamoto returned to her homeland, built a remarkable career and is now recognized as one of the première designers of business and public space interiors in the world. Her work can be seen in the buildings of such corporate entities as Chase Manhattan, Union Oil, and various world Embassies.
Pictured at right, Hiroko visits with Jim Jones, executive assistant to Bishop White, and shows him a book featuring some of her more famous interior designs. She had come to the Indiana Area office last month to offer her thanks to Indiana UMs in person. "For many many years, I've been wanting to express my gratitude."
Recently she determined that it was time to come "to thank officially, the church and its people" for helping her get a new start beyond the horrors and devastation of Hiroshima.
"There are so many memorable people who did many things for me while I was a student," she said. She mentioned, in particular, Carl and Mary Beth Sease (Rossville UMC) and Dorothy Sease, who was serving as a J-3 missioner when Hiroko met her.
As she spoke with us, Hiroko Nakamoto made a point of expressing her profound horror at the prospect of another period of nuclear destruction the world now faces in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks last year.
She still lives and works in Japan, and recently had donated funds and the designs for a rebuilding of the old Hiroshima railway station that was badly damaged by the bomb. "They rebuilt the city but not the station," she said. "I want to beautify [the site] and create a gateway for the 'Hiroshima City of Peace.'" Lynne DeMichele
Last updated on 01/14/2004