It’s cherry blossom season here in the D.C. area! Several spots around the DMV are teeming with people every day, hoping to see the natural beauty. It’s thanks to some soft diplomacy from the Japanese government, who had the trees planted along the Potomac 113 years ago to the day.
The first trees were planted by First Lady Helen Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, who was married to the Japanese ambassador. The Japanese government gifted 2,000 trees in the first batch, but they died from disease. A Japanese person came to the rescue, though, and donated over 3,000 more.
They became the subject of public fascination quickly. In 1934, D.C. put on the first of what would become the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. In an interesting twist of fate, after the two nations found themselves at war around a decade later, the U.S. shared cuttings from the cherry trees with Japan to replace the ones destroyed by bombings.
You can learn more about the D.C. cherry blossoms at the National Park Service. To those nearby, you can see the flowers at peak bloom between March 28-31 this year, according to the agency. There’s more on this year’s blossomings and the festival here.
