25 



When the flames were first seen they were coming from wllliin 

 the Slirine. l)efore any of tlie outside was on fire. Ilie fire started 

 ahout fifteen to twenty minutes after the guard on (hity at the 

 Japanese Garden had gone to his hmch. leaving the (iarden un- 

 protected, as usual during liis hmch hour. On account of the 

 inclement weatlier, there were almost no visitors in the Hotanic 

 Garden that day, and fewest of all at the lunch hour. The struc- 

 ture, l)uilt of California redwood and put together without nails, 

 except for the shingles on the roof, was com]oletely destroyed, and 

 the two " sacred " stone foxes, " messengers of the god," im- 

 ported from Ja])an and standing on either side of the entrance, 

 were cracked and ruined hy the heat. That the fire niav have 

 started accidentally from flying sparks is untenahle, for no ruh1:)ish 

 or anything else had heen hurned in tlie Botanic Garden for sev- 

 eral weeks. In accordance with Japanese custom. Miss Averill. 

 honorary curator of the Japanese Garden, has had a cairn of 

 small roundish stones erected on the site of the Shrine. The fire 

 destro\-ed a heautiful hit of exotic architecture, uni(|ue in America; 

 it will recjuire a])])roximately $2000 to restore it, and the act 

 1)rought only expressions of universal condemnation. Ik-yond 

 these results the fire accomplished exactlv nothing. 



An editorial in the Hcrald-Trihunc the day after the fire com- 

 mented as follows : " Because many good i:)eople are now^ strenu- 

 ously o1)jecting to the harharity of Japanese militarism. New 

 Yorkers are to he denied enjoyment of an example of that delicate 

 craftsmanshiji and high artistic feeling w^hich are equally a product 

 of the Ja])anese s])irit . . . the smouldering little ruin in the 

 Brooklyn Botanic Garden must he added to the gutted temples 

 of China as another score for the hlind and hrute savagery of war. 

 It is su])])osed to he the militarism against ^\■hich current anti- 

 Japanese feeling is directed, not the Japanese. \\\xi how in Heav- 

 en's name can one ()])]^ose what a|)])ear to he the had elements in 

 a national genius hy indiscriminate reprisal against the great posi- 

 tive gifts which it has hrought to the world? There mav he 

 grounds for (>i)])osing Ja])an's militarists hy wrecking her mili- 

 tarism; hut to do it h\- wrecking her art, her civilization, her manv 

 valuahle contrihutions to our common life Is to reduce one's self 

 to the militarists' level and below." 



