In DecemberAmerican newspapers were understandably occupied covering a major news story: the country's entry into World War II. But on December 11, a of papers— including Yonkers' The Herald Statesman —carried an intruiging item, along with a black-and-white photo, that described a reaction to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that's now largely forgotten:.
The vandals were never identified, but the carving on the stump made their intent pretty clear: to retaliate against Japan by attacking four of the cherry trees originally donated by the county in as a gesture of goodwill. But for many people, destroying just four of the trees wasn't enough.
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Afterward, according to the Richmond Afro Americanthere was "talk of cutting [all] the trees down and replacing them with an American variety. Thankfully, cooler he prevailed. Throughout the rest of the war, instead of calling them Japanese cherry trees, they were officially referred to as "Oriental Cherry Trees"—a label apparently pd to be less inflammatory, partly because China and other Asian countries served as allies during the war. Still, for the next six years, the National Cherry Blossom Festival —an annual springtime celebration that had been held every year since —was suspended, partly because of wartime austerity, and partly due to the fact that the trees clearly represented the enemy in a brutal and destructive war, regardless of their name.
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Inthe Victoria Advocate described how before the war"hundreds of thousands of Americans came to Washington annually to see the pretty flowers. There's something wrong. You're doggone right there is. It's been wrong since December 7, Eventually, though, after the war ended inanti-Japanese sentiments gradually subsided. The festival was brought back inand the trees were again allowed to be called "Japanese.
In response to calls to destroy all the trees, officials rebranded them as “oriental” rather than “japanese”
Inin fact, when parks officials became aware that the cherry tree grove that grew along the banks of the Arakawa River, near Tokyo—the grove that had served as the parent stock for the original saplings donated to Washington in —was ailing due to neglect during the war years, they wanted to help. In response, the National Park Service sent cuttings from its own stock back to Japan to help replenish the site. Continue or Give a Gift.
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