Phoenix of Hiroshima
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Phoenix of Hiroshima
Named for the mythological bird which rises from the ashes of its own destruction, the yacht Phoenix, built near Hiroshima and launched May 5, 1954, was designed by Dr. Earle L. Reynolds,[1]
an anthropologist who had been sent to Hiroshima by the National Academy of Sciences to research the effects of the first atomic bomb on the physical growth and development of surviving Japanese children (1951–1954). In Oriental mythology the Phoenix is a bird which appears only in time of universal peace. Over the next 50 years, the Phoenix would take a family around the world, be used to make protest voyages against nuclear weapons, be declared a Japanese national shrine—and would end up offered free on craigslist, gutted and stripped of masts, phoenix figurehead and every identifying mark but the words "Phoenix of Hiroshima."
Dr. Reynolds patterned the 50-foot, double-ended ketch on the Colin Archer design used for sturdy Norwegian fishing vessels. The boat rose symbolically from the ashes of the city destroyed by the first atomic bomb but it also rose, over the period of a year and a half, from the small unprepossessing shipyard of Mr. Yotsuda in Miyajima-guchi, across the Inland Sea of Japan from the famous Miyajima shrine. Until approached by Reynolds, Yotsuda had only built sampans and was struggling to recover financially from the second World War.
The boat was originally constructed entirely of native Japanese woods. (In 1956, the mainmast became infested with borer-type insects and was replaced in Auckland with one of native New Zealand kauri pine.) It was double-planked, mahogany over hinoki (cypress). The hull was hinoki above the water line, sugi (cryptomeria cedar) below. The cabins below decks consisted of mahogany, camphor, cherry, chestnut and Japanese cabinet woods.[2]
When Dr. Reynolds finished the first three years of what was intended to be a longitudinal study interrupted by a one-year sabbatical, he and his family (wife Barbara[3], second son Ted,16, daughter Jessica, 10, and three Hiroshima yachtsmen) sailed the Phoenix around the world (1954–1958). Ted navigated the 30-ton vessel, using calculations from sun shots made with a hand-held sextant. The trip extended past the one year allotted and for a number of reasons, Reynolds did not resume his job in Hiroshima.
The first leg of the circumnavigation, from Japan to Hawaii, took 48 days, most of which were rough and stormy.[4] It was followed by ideal sailing weather to and through the South Seas: Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora in the Society Islands; Rarotonga, American Samoa, Fiji. From there they sailed to New Zealand (Auckland and Wellington); Australia (Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns); Indonesia (Bali, Java).
They weathered a typhoon off Keeling-Cocos Islands, touched in at Rodrigues and Mauritius and changed course to round the tip of South Africa (Durban, Cape Town) rather than go through the Mediterranean during the Suez crisis; Brazil (Fortaleza); the east coast of the United States from New York south; West Indies. They went through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos Islands, where they traded six packages of instant powdered milk, one can of shortening and two bottles of hot pepper sauce for a Galapagos tortoise, 11x11 inches across the shell, naming him Jonathon Mushmouth. (The exchange was legal. They had a permit, issued in Ecuador, to take "two of every kind" of animal from the islands.) Years later they gave Jonathan to the Hanshin Zoo in Osaka, Japan, the zoo's first Galapagos tortoise. The Reynolds family expected Jonathan to outlive them but in (the 1980s) he got sick and died.
In the Galapagos the Phoenix missed by only five miles being hijacked by pirates.[5] Unaware of their close call, the Reynoldses proceeded on to the Marquesas and back to Hawaii. Two of the three Japanese men flew back to Japan from Panama. First mate Niichi (Nick) Mikami remained with the Phoenix. After 645 days, 1222 ports and 54,000 nautical miles, the Phoenix once again sailed into Honolulu harbor.[6][7][8]
Technically this completed a circumnavigation of the globe but the trip had started in Japan and the Reynolds family intended to culminate it there. A change in plans delayed their return for two years. Their route back to Japan was blocked by a 390,000 square mile area of the Pacific declared off-limits to Americans by the U.S. government, which was using the area to test nuclear weapons. A smaller yacht, Golden Rule, was docked near the Phoenix at the time. Its crew of four Quaker pacifists, Albert Bigelow [9], George Willoughby, Bill Huntington and Orion Sherwood had attempted to sail into this forbidden zone to protest nuclear testing and had been brought back by the Coast Guard.
Dr. Reynolds, an expert on the dangers of radiation, was concerned about the effect of this additional radiation on the world environment and the family considered taking over their aborted protest. Mikami, as a citizen of Hiroshima, said in effect that his desire to be included on such a trip was a "no brainer." The family spent days in research, thought and prayer and on June 11, 1958, the Phoenix cleared from Honolulu "for the high seas." By the time they reached the forbidden area on July 1, they had reached a consensus: to enter the zone as a protest against nuclear weapons testing. They were intercepted 65 miles inside the forbidden area by an American Coast Guard vessel, Planetree, whose armed officers boarded the yacht and put Dr. Reynolds under arrest. They ordered him to sail the Phoenix to Kwajalein, escorted by the Navy destroyer Collett and from there they flew him, with Barbara and Jessica, back to Honolulu for trial.
Barbara returned to Kwajalein to help Ted (20) and Mikami sail the Phoenix back to Honolulu, a trip of 60 days (August 15-October 14) against the wind,[10] while Earle was being tried and convicted for entering the zone.[11][12] When Earle's conviction was overturned on appeal, the family sailed back to Hiroshima and Nick Mikami became the first Japanese yachtsman to sail around the world. The Phoenix became so famous that it was declared a national shrine—even, some said, a god—and city buses were re-routed past its dock so neatly-uniformed bus conductors could point it out to passengers.
In 1961 the Reynolds family, now living back in Japan, sailed the Phoenix on a second protest voyage, this time to Nakhodka, USSR, to protest the resumption of Soviet nuclear resting. As the Japanese government would not give Mikami a passport to the Soviet Union, American citizen Tom Yoneda sailed with them.[13][14]
After Earle and Barbara divorced in 1964, Earle and his new wife Akie Nagami, a citizen of Hiroshima, sailed the Phoenix to North Vietnam (1967) to deliver medical supplies to civilians injured by American bombing.[15].
They also attempted two goodwill missions to China "from a Japanese and an American" (at that time neither country recognized Red China) but were physically prevented from doing so, the first time (1967) by the Japanese government and the second (1968) by the Chinese Coast Guard.
For these attempts, the Japanese government expelled Reynolds from the country in which he had lived 13 years (1970). He and Akie sailed the Phoenix to San Francisco and settled at Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, near Santa Cruz, California with the boat moored at nearby Moss Landing. During that time, after offering the Phoenix to each of his three grown children and being turned down, Earle sold the Phoenix to another American family intending to sail around the world and gave the $20,000 from the sale to the Quaker Center in exchange for lifetime residency at the center.
In March 2007, mention of the Phoenix, gutted and minus both masts and its hand-carved Phoenix figurehead, showed up in an ad on craigslist which began, "FREE: 50-foot yacht. . ." [16] John Gardner of Lodi, California, then 31, took possession of the Phoenix for the cost of back dock fees and had it towed up the Sacramento River, hoping to restore it to its original condition and purpose.[17] Peace activists are currently (2010) trying to find Gardner and the Phoenix in order to have the boat saved and restored as a historical monument.[18]
BOOKS AND ARTICLES ABOUT THE PHOENIX
Reynolds, Earle L., "We Crossed the Pacific the Hard Way," The Saturday Evening Post, May 7, 14 and 21, 1955.
Reynolds, Jessica. Jessica's Journal. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1958.
Reynolds, Ted. "Voyage of Protest." Scribble, Winter, 1959
Bigelow, Albert. The Voyage of the Golden Rule: An Experiment with Truth. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company., Inc., 1959.
Reynolds, Jessica. To Russia with Love (Japanese translation), Tokyo: Chas. E. Tuttle Co., 1962.
Reynolds, Earle and Barbara. All in the Same Boat. New York: David McKay Co., Inc., 1962
Reynolds, Earle. Forbidden Voyage. New York: David McKay Co., Inc., 1961
Shaver, Jessica. "Seafaring memories of the South Seas," (Long Beach, CA) Press-Telegram, Feb. 2/3, 1983.
Boardman Elizabeth Jelinek. The Phoenix Trip: Notes on a Quaker Mission to Haiphong. Burnsville, N.S.: Celo Press, 1985.
Shaver, Jessica. "I Learned About Boating From This. . . Burgee, Feb., 1989.
Shaver, Jessica Reynolds. "An Education I Wouldn't Trade," Home Education Magazine, May-June, 1991.
Shaver, Jessica. "First Sail Brings First Sale," Byline, Feb., 1995.
Reynolds, Jessica. To Russia with Love (English original). Wilmington, OH: Wilmington College, due out 2010.
References
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- ↑ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earle_L._Reynolds
- ↑ Earle Reynolds, We Crossed the Pacific the Hard Way, Saturday Evening Post, May 7,14 and 21, 1955
- ↑ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Leonard_Reynolds
- ↑ Earle Reynolds, We Crossed the Pacific the Hard Way, Saturday Evening Post, May 7,14 and 21, 1955
- ↑ http://www.galapagos2000.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=98&Itemid=9 The Historical Chronology of the Galapagos, 1535-2000, records in February 1958, "The 'Phoenix', with Earle Reynolds, his wife Barbara, their children, Jessica and Ted and a Japanese crewmember arrived at Wreck Bay. They went on to Academy Bay where they found the French yacht 'Cle Du Sol', and the American 'Valinda'. The convicts on Isabela were asked to prepare a celebration on February 12th. but on the 9th. they revolted and with stolen weapons took the policemen prisoners. 10th. Puerto Villamil was occupied. 12th. they boarded two fishing boats 'Teresita' and 'Ecuador'. At Punta Moreno they took possession of the 'Viking'. They continue with this and the 'Teresita', to Santiago Island where they captured the 'Valinda' belonging to William Rhodes Harvey Jr. They reached the continent on 17th. and abandoned ship at Esmeraldas but were eventually captured by the police." The Reynolds family would like to correct the second sentence of this history. The Phoenix and Valinda never met. They had scheduled a rendezvous in James Bay on San Salvador Island on February 16. The Phoenix was there and waited all day but the Valinda never showed up. Months later, Earle read in a back issue of Life magazine that the Valinda had arrived in James Bay the night before ("while we were all asleep aboard the Phoenix, five miles away around the point" according to Earle Reynolds' book All in the Same Boat, but had been hijacked by the 21 escapees from the penal colony on Isabella, the neighboring island, who forced the crew to sail to Ecuador.
- ↑ Reynolds, Earle and Barbara, All in the Same Boat, New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1962
- ↑ Reynolds, Jessica, Jessica's Journal, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1958. Eleven-year old Jessica's diary account of the first year of the voyage around the world in the Phoenix.
- ↑ Reynolds, Barbara Leonard, Cabin Boy and Extra Ballast, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958. Fictional children's story of a family sailing from Japan to Hawaii., based on Phoenix voyage.
- ↑ Wikipedia - Albert Bigelow
- ↑ Barbara Reynolds, Upwind, unpublished
- ↑ Reynolds, Earle, The Forbidden Voyage, New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1961. Non-fiction.
- ↑ Norman Cousins, Earle Reynolds and His Phoenix, Saturday Review, (Date?), 1958
- ↑ Reynolds, Jessica, To Russia with Love, Tokyo: Chas. E. Tuttle Co., (in Japanese translation only)1962
- ↑ Reynolds, Jessica, To Russia with Love, Wilmington, OH: Peace Resource Center, Wilmington College, due out in 2010.
- ↑ Boardman, Elizabeth Jelinek, The Phoenix Trip: Notes on a Quaker Mission to Haiphong, Burnsville, N.C.: Celo Press, 1901 Hannah Branch Road, Burnsville, NC 28714 1985
- ↑ craigslist date?
- ↑ www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070324/A.../-1/A...
- ↑ http://peace.maripo.com/p_boats.htm
External links
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earle_L._Reynolds
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Leonard_Reynolds
Peace Monuments Related to Boats or Ships http://peace.maripo.com/e_peace_boats.htm
Last known location of the Phoenix (can view boat itself) http://38 10 54.86N 121 31 42.31W
Wittner, Lawrence S., "The Long Voyage: The Golden Rule and Resistance to Nuclear Testing in Asia and the Pacific," The Asia-Pacific Journal, 8-3-10, February 22, 2010. http://www.japanfocus.org/-Lawrence_S_-Wittner/3308
Wittner, Lawrence S., PhD,[33] "Preserving the Golden Rule as a Piece of Anti-Nuclear History," February 14, 2010, article about Golden Rule and Phoenix. http://www.truthout.org/preserving-golden-rule-a-piece-anti-nuclear-history56895
The Earle and Akie Reynolds Collection at the University of California at Santa Cruz has extensive writings by, photographs of and information about Dr. Earle Reynolds and his second wife. http://library.ucsc.edu/content/earle-and-akie-reynolds-archive
Peace Resource Center (Wilmington College, Wilmington, OH) was founded by activist, author and peace educator Barbara Reynolds in August 1975 to house the largest collection (outside of Japan) on materials related to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to teach peace skills to new generations. http://drcdev.ohiolink.edu/handle/123456789/8331
Swarthmore College Peace Collection: Committee for Non-Violent Action Records, 1958-1968 http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/DG001-025/dg017/dg017cnvamain.htm
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Radio National's, Radio Eye Earle Reynolds and 'The Phoenix' www.abc.net.au/m/arts/radioeye/reynolds.htm
Vietnam's Holy Week Ends on a Bloody Note "A Tass dispatch from Hanoi said Dr. Earle L. Reynolds' ketch Phoenix carrying $10,000 worth of American Quaker medical supplies to North Vietnam, sailed around Red China's Hainan Island and entered the Gulf of Tonkin. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19670326&id=3S4eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JpsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7092,4188697
- http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1069628/index.htm
- http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/virtual/VirtualMuseum_e/exhibit_e/exh0503_e/exh050310_e.html
Effects of radiation from tests in the Marshall Islands which Dr. Reynolds protested and on Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon from American nuclear testing in 1954. One crew member of the ship died from the exposure. See pictures of Lucky Dragon on http://www.360cities.net/image/daigo-fukuryu-maru-exhibition-hall-koutou-tokyo-japan
