Article from The New York Times, December 29, 1927.
 
GOODWILL-DOLLS GREETED BY WALKER
'Ambassadors' From Japanese Children Receive Formal Welcome at City Hall.
FIVE GIRLS PRESENT THEM
Mayor Praises Sentiment That Prompts the Sending of the Envoys of Friendship.

 
The Japanese "Doll Ambassadors of Good-will" arrived in New York yesterday and were officially welcomed by Mayor Walker at City Hall. The ceremony began at 4:30 o'clock when the five Japanese girls, who were chosen to present the dolls, arrived with R. Sekiya, envoy of the Japanese Government in charge of the dolls. They were met on the steps of City Hall by the Mayor and after posing for pictures the party went to the Aldermanic Chamber for a brief ceremony.

Dr. John H. Finley presided. Dr. Sidney L. Gulick, secretary of the Commission on International Justice and Good-will of the Federal Council of Churches, told the story of the movement which resulted in arrival of the dolls as ambassadors. He said that the pennies of the children of Japan had provided the dolls and that the Committee on World Friendship Among Children had sponsored the project.

 
Miss Oita
 
Mayor Walker voiced his gratification at "this expression of the goodwill that ought to obtain all over the world." He said that the gesture was conclusive that the Japanese were instilling the feeling of friendship and that the pennies of the Japanese children would make a friendship that was bound to endure.

Mr. Sekiya spoke in reply to the Mayor being introduced by Consul General Uchiyama. He explained the significance of this expression of friendship by the children of Japan. Robert Underwood Johnson read an original poem written for the occasion. Then some of the dolls were presented by the Japanese children in native costume to a group of American children. "Miss Japan," the most elaborately and expensively dressed of the little ambassadors, was received by Miss Belle Wyatt Roosevelt, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kermit Roosevelt.

Earlier in the afternoon the party was met at the terminal of the Baltimore & Ohio in Jersey City by a delegation headed by Mrs. Frank A. Vanderlip. Today the dolls will be on display at Lord & Taylor's. "Miss Japan" is being exhibited in a garden in the window. Tomorrow the dolls will be placed in a box at the special children's performance at the Civic Repertory Theatre and the Japanese girls will have the box opposite. On Jan. 5 there will be a reception at the home of Mrs. Arthur Curtiss James for the Japanese officials. Mr. Sekiya, who was formerly director of General Education in Japan's Department of Education, will be the guest of honor.

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Photo used with permission from Springfield Science Museum
 

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