A Lesson in the Cost of Beauty
I returned from a business trip to learn that my dear friend, Dr. Tomin Harada, had died.
In Japan, the 87-year-old surgeon is revered as a great humanitarian who built Hiroshima’s first hospital after the atomic bomb, devoted his life to treating its survivors and co-founded the Hiroshima Symphonic Orchestra. Throughout Europe--especially Germany and England--however, he is respected as Japan’s great rose hybridizer. He died June 25.
I first went to Hiroshima in August 1995 to attend the 50th anniversary ceremony in Peace Park and to build a special art garden. Eleven artists--including Beatrice Wood, the renowned Ojai ceramist; Evette Weavers, South Africa’s acclaimed sculptor; and Julie Baggish, a California ceramist--contributed special works.
The plan was to build a semicircular concrete mosaic throne surrounded by eight red David Austin roses. Because Austin roses were not available in Japan, I went to England to make special arrangements for the roses. “You must meet Dr. Harada while you are there,” rose hybridizer David Austin advised me. “His roses are exceptional, and so is he.”
On my first trip to Hiroshima, unfortunately, Dr. Harada was engulfed with producing the epic 50th anniversary commemoration. My only contact was a brief introduction at the lantern ceremony late in the evening of Aug. 6, 1995.
When I returned the following year to complete the garden, Dr. Harada cordially invited me to his home for tea and a tour of his magnificent rose garden. I was totally enchanted by him. We talked roses for hours. He seemed very moved by Americans coming to Hiroshima to create a beautiful garden.
As I was leaving, Dr. Harada gave me a special gift: his entire series of six Hiroshima roses in bare-root form. They are in constant bloom in my garden year-round.
After that, Dr. Harada and I corresponded frequently, giving updates on our gardens.
In the spring of 1997, I invited him to be my house guest for a 10-day garden tour and to give a lecture to the Los Angeles Rose Society at the Descanso Gardens annual spring rose festival.
It was a visit I will always cherish. Looking somewhat frail, Dr. Harada told me he had cancer but did not want to cancel his trip.
“I love roses and all people who grow them,” said the gentleman doctor, who gave me a special present of hand-tooled pruning shears. I use them daily and remember him fondly.
Descanso Gardens was packed for Dr. Harada’s lecture. What we expected was an informative slide show of his garden plus colorful Kodak moments of his magnificent Hiroshima rose series. What we got was insight into how tragedy led to an overwhelming need to create beauty.
After fighting in Taiwan, the surgeon returned to Hiroshima in 1945. “I was 33 then, pale, sick, weighing only 90 pounds,” he told his audience. “When I saw Hiroshima for the first time, there was nothing left. A ghost town has ruins--Hiroshima had nothing. My family was gone. My friends were gone. Everything was gone.
“I felt it was my duty to give surviving people some human rights. They were much disfigured, distorted, with crooked hands. So I want to talk to you a little about Hiroshima at that time.”
For the next 15 minutes, Dr. Harada showed us heart-wrenching, horrifically graphic slides of his disfigured patients, offering tender commentary on each one’s medical condition. The audience was stunned. The photos were unbearable to watch.
I slid down in my chair, my hands covering my eyes, trying unsuccessfully to stifle my sniffles with borrowed Kleenex from my friend Carole Hemingway. Time moved slowly.
“Why is he doing this?” I asked. “It’s a rose club. He is here to talk about roses.”
Carole whispered, “It’s his way, Gail. This is who he is.”
Dr. Harada continued, “I worked 18 hour days for over 20 years. It was hard. I saw more than 3,000 patients die . . . too many deaths. I was so tired of looking at death. I wanted to see something more beautiful. So I started to grow roses. I needed beauty.”
With that, Dr. Harada showed us slides of his spectacular Hiroshima roses--each one more beautiful than the last.
But as amazing as each rose was, all of us realized that the price Dr. Harada paid for such beauty was too much.
Gail Cottman is founder and president of National Satellite Production Media Services, a satellite news agency, and a longtime member of the Pacific and the Los Angeles rose societies.
