Washington, DC - April 2, 2006

On March 27, 1912, Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gave the city of Washington a gift of 3000 Japanese cherry trees in an effort to help encourage the burgeoning friendship between our two countries (which would be briefly interrupted by that... y'know... world war thingy). Most of them line the Tidal Basin, but many others can be found around the Mall and the Ellipse, like those seen here near the Washington Monument.