The model ship from South Korea and the temple from Japan were kept on the third floor of Los Angeles City Hall for decades.
Commoners and the city’s most powerful often passed by without looking. Tourist groups stopped to learn about their history.
Recently, the ship and shrine — which were long-ago gifts from sister cities Busan and Nagoya — were removed to make room for Olympic flags as LA prepares to host the 2028 Games.
Some in the local Korean and Japanese communities are upset, saying the new location planned for the artworks at the Los Angeles Convention Center is a poor choice.
And City Comptroller Kenneth Mejia has questioned the $500,000 cost of moving the artworks and installing new ones in their place amid budget shortfalls.
A big clock that made kids happy With its chime and “cuckoo”,” as well as a statue of Mexican President Benito Juárez were among the historical items removed from the grand hallway near the mayor’s office.
Construction siding is being put down on the third floor of LA City Hall. An Olympic exhibit is planned in the space that once housed Japanese and Korean artifacts. August 13, 2024
(Dakota Smith/Los Angeles Times)
LA Mayor Karen Bass Returning from the Paris Olympics this week, Where she made history as the first black female mayor to receive the Olympic flag.
As she stepped off the plane at LAX, she raised a white flag bearing the five Olympic rings. LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said earlier at a press event in Paris that the flag would be placed outside Bass’ City Hall office.
A spokesman for LA28, the private group paying for the 2028 Olympic Games, declined to comment this week on the flag exhibit, which is part of a larger effort to adorn City Hall with Olympic items, including some from the 1984 LA Games.
Jiyun Kim, BAS’ deputy director of Korean-language communications, said the items are being moved to locations where more people can see them.
“The gifts are undergoing a complete restoration and conservation, some of which are being restored for the first time in decades,” Kim said in a statement. “We look forward to celebrating the new exhibits in coordination with community members and Consuls General at the Los Angeles Convention Center once the restoration is complete.”
Scott Suh, former president of the Los Angeles Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council, said the artifacts were at City Hall during the 1984 Olympics and should remain there today.
“After 60 years or 40 years, you don’t remove them — you expose them,” Suh said. “That’s the wrong message that Mayor Karen Bass is sending.”
The model of the Korean ship, which Busan gave to LA in 1982 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the US and Korea, is known as the “Turtle Ship” because of its resemblance to a turtle’s shell.
The original turtle ship was designed by Admiral Yi Sun-shin to defeat Japanese invaders in the 16th century and is frequently featured in Korean cinema and television.
“This magnificent model is now on permanent display on the third floor of our City Hall,” then-Mayor Tom Bradley wrote to the City Council in 1982.
South Korean media outlets have been covering the reaction to the removal of the artworks.
According to a recent report from Korean-language TV station MBC America, It reaches Out of the 20 million viewers in the US, many Koreans in LA believe that removing the ship from City Hall is “unilaterally demolishing a symbol that promotes Korea, US and Japan relations.”
A senior official at the South Korean Consulate in Los Angeles said consulate officials respected the city’s decision, but the city should have consulted them before deciding to move the ship.
In an Aug. 2 letter to the city, the consulate expressed hope “that the ‘Turtle Ship’ can be displayed in a location that is accessible to more people given its historical significance.”
In 1959, Nagoya became a sister city of L.A. and was gifted a shrine known as mikoshi the following year.
Ten feet tall and made of black lacquered wood, the temple, adorned with gold, was carried in the Nisei Week festival parade in Little Tokyo in August 1960, the Times reported.
L.A. City Council member Kevin de León, whose district includes Little Tokyo, said several locals approached him about the temple’s removal during a Nisei Week event Monday night.
“They are adamant that it should stay at City Hall because of diplomatic protocol,” said de Leon, who said he hopes to serve as a “bridge” between Bass’ office and community groups.
Mayor Karen Bass holds the official Olympic flag as she returns to Los Angeles. The upcoming Olympic exhibition is sparking controversy. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
L.A. regularly hosts officials from Nagoya and the two cities participate in high school exchange programs, said David Ikegami, president of the Little Tokyo Business Association.
He said, “It’s a matter of great shame. I don’t know if anyone realises the importance of this relationship.”
Peter Langenberg, a representative of the nonprofit Los Angeles Nagoya Sister City Affiliation, questioned why the artifacts were being sent to the convention center, which is mostly used for conferences.
“These are museum-quality artifacts,” he said.
The Juárez statue, given to the city by then-Mexican President Luis Echeverría Álvarez in the 1970s, is being moved to the city’s El Pueblo, according to a sign posted on the construction board covering the artifact’s former home at City Hall. A statue of Juárez’s wife, Margarita Maza, is also being moved to El Pueblo.
A spokesman for City Council President Paul Krekorian, who introduced the proposal to move the artifacts and create a City Hall Olympic exhibit, declined to comment on the $500,000 expenditure, which was approved by the City Council last month.
Council Member John Lee, who is Korean American and represents the western San Fernando Valley, has not commented publicly on the matter.
“He believes that moving these precious objects to the convention center will provide a new, broader audience the opportunity to see, enjoy and appreciate them,” said Roger Quintanilla, a spokesman for Lee.
Times staff writer David Wharton contributed to this report.
