Olea europaea (F-161)

Botanical Name

Olea europaea 

Tree Donor

The City of Takamatsu

Date Donated

April 6, 1954

Reason for Donation

In 1954, one year before the planned completion of Peace Memorial Park, the City of Hiroshima sent letters to every mayor in Japan requesting donations of trees, so that the City may fulfill their desire to “establish Peace Memorial Park as a bastion of peace with the help of every peace-loving Japanese citizen."

In response to this request, the City of Takamatsu donated 10 Olea europaea European olive trees.  The trees arrived in Hiroshima on April 6, 1954.

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Mayor Hamai's Letter

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Greetings from the City of Hiroshima.

It is my hope that this letter finds you in the very best of health and spirits despite the cold weather.

As you are already well aware, the City of Hiroshima is in the midst of working to complete various facilities and grounds as a Peace Memorial City. Of these, we are working with great diligence to complete Peace Memorial Park as the centerpiece of these places which commemorate peace.

Peace Memorial Park will be built on the roughly 100,000m2 wedge of land at the tip of the delta created at the divergence of the Motoyasu-gawa River and the Hon-kawa River, two of Ota-gawa River's  seven affluents which flow through Hiroshima City. This land is where the atomic bomb was dropped: the hypocenter. Together with the preservation of the skeletal remains of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, destroyed in the bombing, as a lasting reminder of the tragedy of war to the people of the world, our mission is to make this park a symbol of peace, full of facilities and structures which exude the spirit of peace.

We believe that the hopes of the citizens of Hiroshima are the hopes of every Japanese citizen, and planting trees which have been so generously donated to our park from across Japan will serve to prove as much. Thanks to the cooperation of those involved in this project, we expect that Peace Memorial Park will be completed sometime during the 1954 fiscal year.

If you should so graciously sympathize with our plight, then I ask you for your cooperation here and now. For your reference, attached you will find a chart detailing the weather and climate conditions in Hiroshima City.

Sincerely yours,

Shinso Hamai
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima

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Location

Recent Photograph

Inquiries regarding this page

Flowers and Greenery Policy Section, Landscape Division, Greenery Promotion Division, Urban Development Bureau
1-6-34 Kokutaiji-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Tel: 082-504-2396 // Fax: 082-504-2391
Email: park@city.hiroshima.lg.jp