While their past was fraught with intense conflict, the subsequent rapprochement between the United States and Japan is renewed every spring. Because over the last 100 years, as a show of good faith, the two countries have introduced a traditional exchange of trees.
It all began on 27th March 1912, when Helen Herron Taft, First Lady of the United States, and Viscountess Chinda, the wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first pair of cherry trees at West Potomac Park, an artificial cove adjacent to the Potomac River, and which also goes by the name of Tidal Basin. In that same year a total of 3,020 cherry trees were planted, all brought directly from Japan to Washington DC, as a gift from Yukio Ozaki, the then-Mayor of Tokyo.
As a show of gratitude for this generous donation, in 1915, ex-President William Howard Taft sent 50 flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) bushes to Japan. The exchange of cherry trees and dogwood bushes became an ongoing tradition that has been conserved to the present day.
The trees bloom in early spring, and thus annual parallel festivals are now held on both coasts of the Pacific Ocean to celebrate the event and to uphold the spirit of friendship. This year, in commemoration of the centenary of the first dogwoods given by the United States to Japan, the postal services of the two countries have jointly issued a sheet of stamps featuring beautiful images of flowering dogwoods and cherry trees in bloom, and framing singular buildings and monuments in Tokyo and Washington DC. The sheet of stamps will come into circulation on 10th April.
April 6, 2015
