Members of the local Korean and Japanese communities are criticizing Mayor Karen Bass and other city leaders over their recent decision to relocate artifacts donated to Los Angeles by Korean and Japanese cities decades ago to make room at City Hall for a new Olympic exhibit as the city ramps up its preparations to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Some community members call the decision “insensitive” and “disrespectful” and demand that the artifacts be returned to their original location in front of the mayor’s office.
1 from 4
Expand
The artifacts include a model of a turtle ship, a type of battleship, from Busan, South Korea, and a replica of a Mikoshi shrine from Nagoya, Japan – items presented as gifts from two of LA’s sister cities. The turtle ship was given to the city in 1982 and the Mikoshi shrine in the 1960s.
“These are not just simple exhibits. These are diplomatic artifacts,” said Scott Suh, former chairman of the Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council and spokesman for a coalition of local Korean and Japanese groups upset about the relocation of the items, during a news conference Thursday, Aug. 22, in Koreatown.
Coalition members say they were not consulted before the decision to move the artifacts. They say the items are significant not only because they represent a part of Korean and Japanese history, but also because of diplomatic relations between Los Angeles and the cities of Busan and Nagoya.
The Olympic and Paralympic flags will be displayed along a corridor outside the mayor’s office where the artifacts once stood. According to Bass’ office, in addition to the flags, the Olympic exhibit will include items commemorating the 1932 and 1984 Olympics — when LA also hosted the Summer Games. In 2028, LA will host the Olympics for the third time and the Paralympics for the first time.
To prepare the space for the upcoming exhibit, the city also removed busts of Mexican President Benito Juárez and his wife Margarita – gifts from Mexico. Bass’ office is working with the Mexican consulate to restore the busts and relocate them to LA’s historic El Pueblo.
In the meantime, the artifacts from South Korea and Japan are being restored and will later be exhibited at the LA Convention Center.
Jieun Kim, the city’s deputy director of Korean language communications, said in a statement: “The gifts will be extensively restored and preserved, some for the first time in decades, and then displayed in locations more accessible to the public than City Hall.”
“Together with Council Member John Lee, we are in the process of convening community leaders to discuss the future of these gifts from Mexico, Korea and Japan,” she added.
Citing the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the mayor’s office said that the last time conservation work was carried out on the turtle ship from Korea was nearly 20 years ago and that this is the first conservation and restoration work for items from Nagoya in Japan.
However, members of Los Angeles’ Korean and Japanese communities who oppose the move say it was not necessary to move the artifacts. They point out that then-Mayor Tom Bradley did not have the items removed before the 1984 Olympics, the last time Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics. They have suggested that the city government find another location in City Hall for the Olympics exhibit.
Peter Langenberg, a board member of the Los Angeles Nagoya Sister City Affiliation, said members of LANSCA and some representatives of organizations in Little Tokyo met with Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Erin Bromaghim this week. He said she apologized for city leaders not consulting with community members beforehand, calling it an “oversight.”
“I’m disappointed that they couldn’t do this in advance and consult people,” Langenberg said, adding that Bromaghim promised to keep community groups more informed in the future.
According to Langenberg, Bromaghim explained that city leaders decided to move the artifacts to the Convention Center because they felt there was enough space for an exhibit there. In addition to the Mikoshi Shrine, a float with mechanical dolls and a wall clock with mechanical dolls, which were also gifted to LA in 1989 and 1994, respectively, were also moved there, Langenberg said.
Langenberg expressed mixed feelings about moving the artifacts to the Convention Center. On the one hand, he said it was probably right that more people would see the artifacts there. On the other hand, he feared that the items could be damaged by moving them more frequently.
“The decision has been made. But we are still very concerned about the final handling of these items and their new locations in the Convention Center,” he said.
Meanwhile, some continue to demand that the artifacts be returned to their original location.
In July, the Los Angeles City Council voted 14-0, with Council Member Marqueece Harris-Dawson absent, to allow the mayor to hang the Olympic flags outside her office and “relocate existing objects … – gifts to the city – to make room for the flag display.”
As part of that vote, the council also approved $500,000 to fund the move and restoration of the misplaced items.
A spokesman for City Council member John Lee, the only Korean-American on the City Council, said in a statement that Lee recognizes that “the gifts Los Angeles receives from sister cities have great significance for the city, and he is confident that moving these valuable items to the Convention Center will allow a new, larger audience to see, enjoy and appreciate them.”
