Creating ice sculpture stirs emotions in US military team
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SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — Last week, sailors from Naval Air Facility Misawa made the daylong journey to Sapporo, Japan to play in the snow. However, it was by no means a vacation.
For the past 28 years, sailors from Misawa have traveled to the Sapporo Snow Festival, located on the northern island of Hokkaido, and participated in their snow sculpture showcase, which draws world-class snow sculptors and tourists from around the world.
This year was different, however, as some of the sailors involved carried with them the emotions and fellowship of having participated in relief operations after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan.
As the six-sailor delegation finished their bust reprisal of the Navy’s iconic “Lone Sailor” statue, which is located at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington D.C., Chief Christopher “Billy” Knox said they decided to make a last-minute addition to the meticulously planned work of art.
They added “Tomodachi,” the name of the relief operation, in Japanese script under the sailor’s chin.
“Incorporating that into it was a super meaningful thing,” said Knox, a Seabee from Chapin, Ill. “I think it was real meaningful to the locals and it meant a lot to us as well.”
Knox, the team leader, spent three months in Iwate prefecture following the disaster, helping the Japanese dig out and rebuild. Seeing the smiles on the faces of Japanese spectators as they viewed the sculpture, and explaining it to them, was very gratifying, despite the effort needed to build an ice sculpture in freezing temperatures.
This year’s Misawa team, dubbed the “Sapporo Six” by base leadership, featured five sailors and a Navy airman with no snow sculpting experience – all except Knox. In fact, many team members came from warm weather states like California, Hawaii, and Florida. In addition to battling the frigid temperatures for eight hours a day, they had to deal with the fact that their six-foot cubed piece of snow wasn’t perfectly square, which hampered their efforts to transfer their scale graph onto the snow during their first day of work.
The sailors also had to race the clock as they only had four days to complete the sculpture. Petty Officer 2nd Class Alvin Zuilan said they just kept moving, and walked to a nearby convenient store to purchase hand and feet warmers.
Knox said that his team came through, and built the best snow sculpture to date; erasing the troubles of last year when their snow anchor melted and crumbled.
“They knocked it out of the ballpark,” a proud Knox beamed. “It turned out phenomenal.”
Senior Chief Dan Sanford, a base spokesman, said that more than 200,000 people are expected to visit the festival, which began Monday and runs through Sunday.
“I’m really proud,” said Zuilan, an aviation machinist. “I’m really proud of the team and of the community’s reaction to what we’ve accomplished.”
The San Diego native said that it was especially emotional when elderly Japanese would come up to him and the group and thank them for their help following one of the worst disasters in recent history.
“I love Japan,” Zuilan said. “It’s an overwhelming feeling.”
