The Cultural Diplomacy of Public Gardens: The Case of Japanese Gardens in the United States View Digital Media

Poster Session
Sandra Reineke  

This study examines the role of public gardens as a constructed environment, a space, of cultural diplomacy between the United States and Japan. Cultural diplomacy is any activity that uses the exchange of cultural artifacts between countries and their citizen to foster mutual understanding and cooperation. The creation of Japanese gardens open to the public began in the United States with the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, where the Meiji government included such a garden in their fair exhibit. Later, Japanese immigrants, especially to the Pacific Northwest where to this day most Japanese gardens can be found, created these gardens to promote their businesses, including horticulture, and to promote their cultural heritage and provide communal gathering spaces. Americans readily embraced the Japanese garden landscape design and purpose to be places of peace, beauty, and contemplation until World War II when Japan and its culture became an enemy to American national security. After the destruction of some of the Japanese gardens in the wake of the war, the U.S.-Japan Sister City initiative used Japanese gardens in their cultural diplomacy efforts to promote peaceful relationships and business between the citizens of their countries. The gardens as a space of relaxing outdoor experience have in many ways contributed to the popularity of Japanese culture before and after the war in United States social life.