By Keiji Uesugi
The Japanese garden at Roosevelt High School (RHS) traces its history back almost 100 years to the prewar era of L.A. In the early 20th century, Boyle Heights served as an extension to LA’s Japantown known as Little Tokyo, which resulted in the large presence of Japanese American businesses, churches, and homes in the community.
In 1935, RHS student Shigeo Takayama, who was the school’s Japanese Club president, helped build a Japanese garden on campus with the involvement of other Japanese American students and their parents. Years later, the garden was destroyed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942 amid anti-Japanese sentiment and racial discrimination. In 1943, the Japanese American students at RHS and 120,000 other people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the West Coast were forcibly removed from their homes and lost their businesses as they were incarcerated in 10 confinement sites by the U.S. government built in rural areas across the country.
Decades later, the Japanese garden was rebuilt in 1996 by RHS students who learned about the atrocities of the Japanese American incarceration and the students who never received the diplomas during World War II (WWII). The garden was named Heiwa En, which means Garden of Peace, in remembrance of the Japanese American students who suffered in confinement sites during WWII but also as a symbol of “hope for future generations” as inscribed on a dedication plaque. In 2005, the garden went through another renovation with the financial support of Takayama. In 2017, I was asked to assist with the design of a new and relocated Japanese garden at RHS due to the expansion work at the campus that included a new building where the 1996 garden was located. Working with design firm LPA, I met with LAUSD and RHS alumni to present design concepts for the new garden. It was essential that elements of the original garden were part of the new design and the vision that it serve as a garden of peace, beauty, and serenity was properly honored. For instance, the presence of a waterfall that could be viewed from different vantage points on shaded benches served as the focal point of the new garden design as it did in the original garden. Typical Japanese garden plants such as the Sago palm and Japanese maple were planted while a stone lantern and wash basin are planned to be installed upon the completion of a low-rail fence that is based on the details of the original garden.
As part of this new phase of the garden, some new design concepts to complement the original garden were introduced. The waterfall and pond were built with large boulders to match the scale of the surrounding space, and an old Chinese proverb about a carp leaping over the top of the waterfall to become a dragon inspired its design and construction. This proverb is often associated with education because of the hard work students put in at school to achieve academic excellence.
Design considerations also needed to be made about how the qualities of a Japanese garden can co-exist within the dynamic environment of a public high school campus. The garden maintenance can be quite demanding in a Japanese garden as iconic plants such as a Japanese black pine can take several hours to prune. In the original garden, the Nanka Mie Kenjinkai (Japanese prefectural association of Mie) oversaw the garden for several years, but their involvement had decreased in recent times before the new construction. Plant selection and materials that could be maintained by the campus crew were important considerations. Meanwhile, additional shaded seating areas were created in the new garden with benches and boulders so that students could retreat to the calm environment during breaks.
As the RHS campus transforms with the continuously evolving urban fabric of Boyle Heights, the Garden of Peace is envisioned to serve as a symbol of the Japanese American experience and the complex layers of history, cultural identity and racial justice we as a society continue to address for the sake of future generations. Moreover, it is my hope that the garden will also be a place where the RHS students and community can come to enjoy the therapeutic qualities of the trees, plants, and water as the stroll the meandering paths or sit in the shaded spaces for peace and comfort.
