In a moving ceremony, the new garden dedicated to peace was officially opened on August 6, the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima by the USA. Lord Mayor Jacqueline McLaren, the Consul General of Japan, Masataka Tarahara, Glasgow CND Chairperson Jean Anderson officiated and there was rousing singing by Protest in Harmony and, later in the Kibble Palace, The City of Glasgow Chorus.
Pupils from St Charles and North Kelvinside Primary schools contributed artwork and haikus on peace, remembrance and resilience. They also helped design the space.
In the wake of the devastation, an arborist discovered that a Ginkgo Biloba had survived, damaged but alive and he nursed it back to health. Our own Botanic Gardens curator, Dr Hiro Shimai, whose mother witnessed the Hiroshima bombing, is nurturing saplings – germinated from seeds – from that mother tree. Hiro said: “Just after the bombing in Hiroshima in 1945, it was believed that no plants could grow for decades because of the radioactivity. Only some trees in the city of Hiroshima survived, and the Ginkgo was one of them although it was seriously damaged. However, vigorous new shoot growth from the survivor ginkgo tree encouraged people in the city.”
The global Mayors for Peace initiative encourages the planting of hibaku trees – descendants of those which survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Seeds were donated to Glasgow City Council by Mayors for Peace in 2023. The seeds successfully germinated, and the seedlings were carefully maintained by the staff members at the Botanic Gardens.
CND spokesperson Jean Anderson said: “On this momentous anniversary of 80 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Glasgow CND is proud that our Lord Provost has been instrumental in creating a new Peace Garden. It will be a place of calmness and thoughtfulness and a refuge from the conflicts that surround us.”
Lord Provost Jacqueline McLaren said, “Glasgow’s Peace Garden will stand as a testament to our collective commitment to peace. Peace is not only a legacy to honour, but a responsibility to pass on.”
“The second generation of the Ginkgo, whose mother tree experienced the nuclear disaster, would tell us the importance of peace,” said Hiro. Although the Gingko Biloba saplings will not be ready for permanent planting for another two to three years, the garden’s symbolic elements are already in place.
In the wise words of Robert Burns:
Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a’ that,
That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth
Shall bear the gree an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s comin yet for a’ that,
That Man to Man the warld o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that
The Friends of Glasgow Botanic Gardens are proud to contribute to the construction of the Peace Garden, along with Scottish CND, Mayors for Peace, Green Legacy Hiroshima and Glasgow City Council.
