Mike Walsh, MM:
I have found out some interesting things in [the Maryknoll Archives], and met – so to speak — a number of historical personages. One thing I have found intriguing is the life and work of one Mr. Ryozo Peter Kato. Mr. Kato was a stone craftsman and gardener from Japan, and a true autodidact. He grew up on a tea plantation and came to the United States in 1910. In 1941, after Pearl Harbor, he and his family were sent to an internment camp. In 1943 (before the war ended) Maryknoll obtained working papers for Mr. Kato. He lived here at Maryknoll for years. During that time he helped landscape the grounds. At some point he converted to Catholicism; I sometimes think it was largely because it gave him a reason to build Marian shrines, at which he was expert. Examples of his work remain in various parts of the country. I have a manuscript of his in which he describes the art and science of building them: the types of stone, the use of water – that sort of thing. His surviving family members are interested in preserving his legacy.
