Hundreds of people gathered earlier this month in Hanapepe, Kaua'i, to dedicate a small garden to the memory of former resident Spark Matsunaga and his lifelong work for peace.

Its creators envision the walled garden behind the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii, with a bronze statute of Matsunaga walking with a young girl, as yet another place to continue his mission of teaching peace.

Seeking world peace was a theme that ran through Matsunaga's long career as a public servant, from his World War II Army service with the storied 100th Battalion until his death in office as a U.S. senator in 1990.

Matsunaga's hometown isn't the only place that honors his peace legacy.

On the northwest corner of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., construction is under way on a new, permanent building for the U.S. Institute of Peace, a quasi-governmental agency that Matsunaga spent many of his 28 years in Congress working to create.

And at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution is giving out more degrees and training more students in working for peace than ever before.

More than 23 years after the institutes were created — one envisioned by Matsunaga and the other named after him posthumously — leaders at the two organizations told The Advertiser about the work they are doing and why they believe "Sparky" would be proud.

"I think that his reasons for devoting so much of his career to peace are directly due to his experiences in war," former state Sen. Matt Matsunaga said of his father, who was wounded in combat in Italy. "And it was a deeply rooted belief, that you first see in his writings as a UH student."

In an English essay titled "Let Us Teach Our People to Want Peace," Matsunaga wrote as a college freshman in 1938: "We are living in a society based too largely on a militaristic foundation. The peace-loving emotions of the people have not been cultivated. Wants are the drives of all human action. If we want peace we must educate people to want peace. We must replace attitudes favorable to war with attitudes opposed to war."

Spark Matsunaga was genuinely interested in peace at any level, from the family to the world stage, Matt Matsunaga said.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye lauded Matsunaga for "many years advocating for the nonviolent resolution of conflict and the promotion of world peace."

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, who took Matsunaga's Senate seat after his death at 73, said: "Sparky took a huge step forward in establishing a process for peace, not only for the benefit of America but also the world. In a time of world tension, he was the guy pushing for peace. He observed that we have all these military academies dedicated to training forces for battle, and asked, what about an academy for peaceful purposes? That was his idea."

EFFORTS PAID OFF

Matsunaga lobbied fellow members of Congress for 22 years before persuading them and President Ronald Reagan to create a peace academy program.

"The U.S. Institute of Peace exists because of him," said Charles Smith, who worked directly with Matsunaga on a Senate Commission that studied the need for a peace academy and who still works for the institute today.

"I think he'd be very pleased with the way it has developed as an independent institution" that makes contributions to conflict resolution internationally, but is not a part of the State Department, Smith said. "And I think he'd be very happy with the educational purposes of this institute."

Public exposure to the institute's educational side will increase vastly with the completion of its new building on the National Mall in 2011. Situated near the Lincoln, World War II, Korean and Vietnam Veterans memorials, the architecturally striking building will include an interactive public education center that aims to teach about conflict and peace.

Charles "Chick" Nelson, a U.S. Institute of Peace vice president who also knew Matsunaga, describes the institute's work with four verbs: "We think, do, teach and train."

The institute started with five employees and has grown to 150, while almost that many "come to work here every day," as fellows and researchers in its various programs, Nelson said. Its programs include working to avoid armed conflict; to help resolve active conflicts; and to achieve post-conflict peace and stability.

In addition to a Washington office, the institute maintains small offices in Iran and Afghanistan.

The institute's budget of $32 million is dwarfed by the nation's multibillion-dollar defense budget, but it has been growing in recent years, Nelson said.

"We're at our best when we bring together in a particular meeting, people who represent differing points of view and don't normally meet with each other," Nelson said. "No other organization combines the analytic, educational and operational features that we do."

To Akaka's view, the institute publishes "influential documents, papers and studies, and holds conferences that contribute to the debate," he said. "Like the military, they anticipate potential disputes, but rather than preparing for battle, Sparky's institute is the one that explores strategies for peace."

HERE AT HOME

While the national institute "takes care of the world," on the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus, the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution tends to focus more on peace-making at the household, community and social level, said Brien Hallett, an associate professor there.

The institute offers a wide range of courses, two undergraduate programs in peace and conflict resolution and a graduate certificate in conflict resolution.

Despite a slim staff and budget, "we are educating an increasing number of students every semester," Hallett said. "Students are more and more aware we exist, and of the value of our courses," many of which are taught by faculty from other departments.

The UH institute's Alternative Dispute Resolution services are provided — often at no charge — to the university community and to the community as a whole, Hallett said. It has done work for the postal service, the Air Force, even facilitated attempts to reach consensus among competing views of what should be done to develop Kaka'ako Makai.

"It's an enormous service," much of which goes unheralded because it is confidential, Hallett said.

Whether at the international conference table or between feuding individuals, the principals of conflict resolution are the same, Hallett said.

"The theory is we are having a conflict because we have different interests," he said. If both parties can identify their real interests, there's a chance for resolution.

Matt Matsunaga, the only one of five siblings who pursued a political career, said of his father: "In many ways, the world is just starting to catch up to him; he was such a visionary. You have to just look at him and marvel that he continued to preach these noble causes when they were not that popular."

World War II veteran Dudie Kaohi, 88, went to the same grade school in Hanapepe as Matsunaga. Kaohi admires how Matsunaga came from humble circumstances where many didn't graduate high school, yet achieved undergraduate and law degrees — and represented his home state in Washington, D.C.

Matsunaga never returned to Kaua'i to live after World War II, but the island still honors him, Kaohi says.

"He's a local boy — Kaua'i born — so why not," he said.

As a congressman and senator, "I think he did a lot," said Kalaheo resident Americo Morris Jr., 68, whose father was friends with Matsunaga. "He was important to Kaua'i."