Peace in the Long Run: Trees, Rocks, and Other Traces of Trans-Pacific Citizen Diplomacy

Friday Research Seminar with Hirokazu Miyazaki (Kay Davis Professor of Anthropology, Northwestern University).

What is peace? In today’s world of reactive exchanges of divisive rhetoric, military provocations, and threats of nuclear warfare, answering this question is difficult. In this paper, I will examine a prominent case of trans-Pacific citizen diplomacy in which peace emerges as an enduring yet diffuse concern. Specifically, I will focus on the sister city relationship between Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Nagasaki, Japan—the first such relationship between the United States and Japan. Specifically, I will focus on two gardens that played a pivotal role in the history of this relationship. I will argue that paying attention to trees, rocks, and other traces of many forms of relational work offers a new way to think about peace in the long run.