Signs of Life In the Peace Garden

I have to admit I’ve been worried about the Firmiana tree in the Peace Garden lately. While everything else is leafing and flowering, the Firmiana remained stubbornly stick-like. It’s the spindly-looking thing in the middle of the photo to the right.

For those who need cluing in, the Firmiana tree was donated to the university in May 2005  as a second generation sapling from the tree that survived very close to the epicentre of the atomic blast at Hiroshima, 6 August, 1945. Seeds of the tree were collected and flown to various locations around the world with a view to passing on “a shared love of peace and a vision of a world free from nuclear weapons.”¹ We include it as part of our Alumni Heritage Trail, and reunion visitors are impressed with it and the Peace Garden that was built around it. The Peace Garden is also the location for the second part of the Remembrance Day service each November and where the wreath laying takes place by the rugby and cricket clubs.

So you can see that symbolically it’s rather an important tree on campus. That it appeared to be lifeless in recent weeks was troubling. However today my vigil was rewarded by the first signs of life – some tiny  leaves tentatively poking through out of the buds! Further research shows that the tree flowers in July so likely it’s right on schedule after all!

I’m still going to keep checking in and keeping watch though. Symbols of peace aren’t things to neglect and hope for the best.

¹ Inscription on plaque in front of the Firmiana tree