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With Students
in Front of School's Doll
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My visit was scheduled on a national holiday (Health-Sports Day held on
second Monday of October), which unfortunately meant few children were there
during my visit. When I went to view the school's Friendship Doll in the
morning, I was surprised to find that I was accompanied by about 20 people,
including persons from two newspapers and a local TV station. The principal
kindly invited me to return on a regular school day to meet the students.
Shimabara Daiichi Elementary School's doll, Little Mary, is prominently
displayed in a special room with tatami mats that is across a walkway from
the main school building. This doll from America participated in a welcoming
ceremony held on May 18, 1927, for the four Friendship Dolls distributed to
schools in Shimabara. A large photo of this welcome ceremony is hung below
the display case for Little Mary. The four American dolls in the photo are
surrounded by numerous Japanese dolls there to greet them.
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Little Mary
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Little Mary was discovered at the school in 1984. For many years the doll
did not have a name, since the original passport with the name has never been
found. A couple of years ago the students at the school decided to give the
doll the name of "Little Mary," which is the title of the English
translation of a children's book written by Eiko Takeda, who has researched
the Friendship Dolls for many years and has written several books about them.
When talking with the few children who came that morning, I was surprised
when I saw a non-Japanese woman there. I found out later that she is the
English teacher at Shimabara Daiichi Elementary School and two other
elementary schools in the city of Shimabara. She has lived for several years
in Shimabara, and she has about 1,000 students to whom she gives English
instruction.
I appreciate the support and encouragement of the members of the Miss
Nagasaki Homecoming Committee in helping to arrange my visit to Shimabara.
Several Shimabara residents are working enthusiastically to plan for the
April 2003 homecoming exhibition of Miss Nagasaki, the Japanese Friendship
Doll at the Rochester Museum & Science Center in New York. On the Sunday
night before my school visit, there was a public meeting attended by many of
the people involved with Miss Nagasaki's homecoming. At the meeting
Hirobumi Toyama, a retired English teacher in Nagasaki City who has
researched Friendship Dolls for about 20 years, and I gave talks about
Friendship Dolls.
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Shimabara Castle
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After the visit to the school, a local couple showed me several Shimagara
sites, including the castle, a
street of old Samurai houses, and a historical museum. As I walked around the
city, I was surprised by natural water gushing out in many places and
available for the public to drink. Since the day was rather hot, I took
advantage of the delicious water from the ground four or five times. Later we
went a short distance from the city center to view an area devastated
in the early 1990s by eruptions from the Unzen
Volcano and by the debris flows caused
by subsequent rainstorms. The volcano caused 44 deaths and destroyed hundreds
of houses.
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