THOUSANDS of origami cranes, symbols of healing and transformation in Japan, have been placed in a shrine in front of an immigration detention centre in Washington DC.
The folded paper birds were strung together and prayed over in front of the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center by clergy and lay leaders of Asian American, native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander heritage.
The crane — called a Tsuru in Japanese — is frequently used to honour survivors of concentration camps from the Second World War and Japanese American war victims.
The idea to make the paper cranes came from the Japanese-American campaign group, Tsuru for Solidarity. Episcopal congregations from across the US and France folded and donated more than 5000 cranes, with help from Quaker groups in Florida.
A group of 70 clergy and lay leaders gathered by the shrine to pray for those in detention as part of the annual retreat of the Episcopal Churches Asiamerica Ministries. The theme of this year’s retreat was “Let it not happen again”.
“The theme is not just about caring for others in general, but also to remember that our ancestors went through a similar journey,” the Revd Janelle Hiroshige, associate for youth and community partnerships at the parish of the Epiphany in Boston Massachusetts, told the Episcopal News Service. “It’s about remembering to make sure that others don’t experience things like it and to give us the courage and the strength to keep working for justice.”
According to the latest ICE and US Customs and Border Patrol data compiled by NBC News, 60,311 migrants and asylum-seekers are currently in ICE custody.
Those on the retreat visited the Tacoma Reconciliation Park, which commemorates the expulsion of 200 Chinese residents from Tacoma and the destruction of their businesses in 1885. They also went to St Peter’s Episcopal parish, a historically Japanese church in Seattle whose congregation includes descendants of victims and survivors of Second World War concentration camps.
The Revd Jo Ann Lagman, the Episcopal Church’s missioner for Asiamerica ministries and a Filipina American, said that the origami crane project had been transformative.
“People learned some of their ancestral history that they hadn’t considered before or looked at with that lens, in that context,” she said. “This experience is something that they are reflecting on and will continue to reflect on for a long time.”