SIERRA MADRE : Gift to School Honors Japanese Garden Project

A Japanese group has presented Sierra Madre Elementary School with two handmade dolls in recognition of a sixth-grade class’s efforts to restore a pre-World War II Japanese garden at their school.

The dolls were donated by the Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute in Spokane, Wash., a branch of Mukogawa Women’s University in Nishinomiya, Japan. The institute and other groups have rekindled a “friendship doll” program, which originally began in 1927 to promote peace between Japanese and American children.

In January, a group of 14 Sierra Madre students dedicated themselves to reviving the school’s forgotten Japanese garden, built by the parents of Japanese American schoolchildren in 1931 as a gesture of goodwill. The garden, which once included a miniature bridge and fish pond, was vandalized during World War II and never repaired.

Students who read a magazine story that mentioned their school’s Japanese garden decided to raise money to fix it up and to organize fund-raising efforts. Local nurseries have donated plants, soil and flowers, and contractors have donated their expertise.