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Lisa in front of presentation
board
about Friendship Doll activities
in American elementary schools
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On February 27, 2002, Shukugawara Elementary School received the special
gift of a new Blue-eyed Doll from Sidney
Gulick, 3d, and his wife Frances. During the past 15 years, they have
sent about 150 dolls to elementary schools and kindergartens in Japan. Sidney
Gulick, 3d, is the grandson of Dr. Sidney Gulick, who coordinated the
international goodwill project to send almost 13,000 dolls from American
children to Japanese children in 1927.
My wife Noriko had visited Shukugawara Elementary in June of last year,
and I had visited the school
in November. Therefore, many of the students at the school had met us
before. Noriko and I know very well the family of one of the fourth-grade
students at the school, so it was a very special event for us to visit the
school to present the new Blue-eyed Doll from the Gulicks to the students.
The sixth-grade students at the school did an excellent job in planning a
memorable ceremony to welcome the new doll from America. As an introduction,
one of the sixth-grade students expressed that the students were surprised at
the terrorist incident that occurred last year on September 11. The students
were very sad when they heard about such a cold-blooded act. They wanted to
do as much as possible for the American people who had been hurt. The
children thought that it was very good that President Bush of America came to
Japan and had a meeting with Prime Minister Koizumi so that the friendship
between Japan and America could become closer.
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Listening to
Student's Talk
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After a brief speech by the school principal, Mr.
Tameya, a couple of sixth-grade boys presented an excellent slide show on the
results of their research about the Blue-eyed Dolls sent by American children to
Japan in 1927. They explained that the dolls still remain at schools from
Hokkaido in the north (Bikuni
Elementary School) to Kyushu in the south (Kagami Elementary School). The
boys showed a photo of the bronze statue to commemorate the Blue-eyed Dolls at Yamagata
City Daiichi Elementary School.
The show by the sixth graders included several
slides on San Diego, where I am working now. They mentioned the year-round warm
weather in San Diego, and the slides included one about the surfing and kayaking
at nearby La Jolla, but the students seemed most impressed by the fact that San
Diego had a major league baseball team, the Padres, that played against Ichiro
of the Seattle Mariners. I had never thought that one of the major attractions
of San Diego was that Ichiro played a few times a year against the city's
baseball team, but it just shows the immense popularity of Ichiro in Japan!
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In Principal's Office
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Next I gave a speech about the American Blue-eyed
Dolls, both those sent in 1927 and those sent more recently by Sidney and
Frances Gulick. Noriko then talked about the Japanese Friendship Dolls,
including the 58 dolls sent to America in 1927 and those dolls sent more
recently to many American schools through the program established by the Mukogawa
Fort Wright Institute. She also encouraged the students to come visit
America and help try to find Miss Kanagawa, the Japanese Friendship Doll named
after the prefecture where Shukugawara Elementary School is located. Miss
Kanagawa is one of the missing 14 dolls of the 58 Japanese Friendship Dolls
sent to the United States in 1927.
I read a letter from
Mr. Gulick in English and in a Japanese translation. Next, I presented the
New Blue-eyed Doll named Lisa to student representatives. Lisa's long brown
hair, almost to her waist, surprised many students. Noriko showed the students
the travel bag and nightgown handmade by Mrs. Gulick. Next, I read Lisa's
American passport both in English and in Japanese:
Name: Lisa
Eyes (color): blue
Hair (color): brown
Date of birth: February 2, 1994
Place of birth: Adelphi, Maryland, USA
Date of issue: February 16, 2002
Date of expiration: Never
Passport number: 1602022002
Signature of parent: Frances Gulick
The passport also included a cute photograph of
Lisa.
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Talking to Students About
American Friendship Dolls
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Each grade at the welcome assembly sang a beautiful
song, with the "Train" song by the 4th-grade students being especially
memorable. At the end of the ceremony, Noriko received a bouquet of flowers and
I received a chochin (Japanese lantern) with my name "Bill
Gordon" written in Chinese characters.
On March 2, before leaving Japan, Noriko and I
received over 200 letters of thanks from the 4th and 5th graders at the school.
A few of these thank-you
letters have been translated to English. The letters show how much the
students learned about the true message of the Friendship Dolls.
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