إهداء اليابان أشجار الكرز للولايات المتحدة

The Jefferson Memorial visible through cherry blossoms across the Tidal Basin

العيد الوطني لإزهار الكرز (National Cherry Blossom Festival ؛ يابانية: 全米桜祭り، Zenbei Sakura Matsuri) هو احتفال في الربيع في واشنطن العاصمة, commemorating the March 27, 1912, gift of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City to the city of Washington, D.C. Ozaki gave the trees to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and also celebrate the continued close relationship between the two nations.^[1] Large and colorful helium balloons, floats, marching bands from across the country, music and showmanship are parts of the Festival's parade and other events.^[2]

1912: هدية اليابان لأمريكا.

تاريخ أشجار الكرز

المبادرات المبكرة

Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore was an early proponent of planting Japanese flowering cherry trees along the Potomac River.

Scidmore admired cherry blossoms in Mukojima, Sumida, Tokyo.^[3] Picture published in 1897.

The effort to bring cherry blossom trees to Washington, D.C., preceded the official planting by several decades. In 1885, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore returned from her first trip to Japan and approached the U.S. Army Superintendent of the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds with the idea of planting cherry trees along the reclaimed waterfront of the Potomac River. Scidmore, who would go on to become the first female board member of the National Geographic Society, was rebuffed, though she would continue proposing the idea to every Superintendent for the next 24 years.^[4] Several cherry trees were brought to the region by individuals in this period, including one that was the location of a 1905 cherry blossom viewing and tea party hosted by Scidmore in northwest D.C. Among the guests was prominent botanist David Fairchild and his fiancée Marian, the daughter of inventor Alexander Graham Bell.^[5]

في 27 مارس 1912 - السيدة الأولى هلن هرون تافت والڤايكونتسة تشيندا، زوجة السفير الياباني، زرعتا شجرتي كرز يوشينو على الضفة الشمالية لحوض مفيض نهر الپوتوماك في واشنطن العاصمة. الحدث كان بمناسبة إهداء الحكومة اليابانية 3,000 شجرة للولايات المتحدة. زُرعت الأشجار في حوض مفيض الپوتوماك بالقرب من الموقع المستقبلي لـنصب جفرسون التذكاري، في منتزه شرق الپوتوماك، وفي حديقة البيت الأبيض.^[6]

Fifty-three years later, the Japanese government made a second gift of 3,800 cherry trees. In 1965, Mrs. Ryuji Takeuchi, wife of Ambassador Takeuchi, and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson participated in the ceremonial planting. This time, the trees were planted on the grounds of the Washington Monument.

The planting of cherry trees along the Potomac fulfilled travel writer and photographer Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore’s long and determined quest. Returning from her first trip to Japan in 1885, Scidmore advanced the idea of bringing the trees to the District of Columbia with U.S. government officials. She was ignored.

In 1909, Scidmore decided to raise money for the purchase of the trees herself. She wrote of her plans to the new First Lady, Helen Herron Taft, and received an enthusiastic response. “I have taken the matter up,” the First Lady wrote Mrs. Scidmore, “and am promised the trees.” Upon learning of the First Lady’s plans, the Japanese consul in New York broached the idea of making a gift of the trees to the U.S. government.

معرض

Thousands of people attend the annual Cherry Blossom Festival every spring.
Cherry blossoms on the National Mall.
Cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin.
A detailed close-up of some cherry blossoms.
Cherry blossoms surrounding the MLK Memorial.
Blossoms at the FDR Memorial.
Wide view of the Tidal Basin with blossoms in 2010.
Stumpy, a small tree that went viral on the internet in 2020 and uprooted in 2024.^[7]