50th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival Coming to the Seattle Center
By Bruce Rutledge
NAP General Manager
The very first Cherry Blossom Festival was held in Seward Park in Seattle, Washington, in 1976 to celebrate the 1,000 cherry trees that Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Miki gave to Seattle for the U.S. bicentennial. Those trees were planted along Seward Park and Lake Washington and still bloom today.
Like those cherry trees, the festival has grown and evolved over the years, thanks to the stewardship of Yutaka and Tazue Sasaki, who have been at the helm for all 50 celebrations. Today, the Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival is a three-day affair that brings Japanese art, food and culture to the Seattle Center.
While the Japanese and Japanese American communities are strong in the Greater Seattle area, those communities face challenges today that are eerily similar to the challenges they faced a half century ago. In 1976, about a month after the first Cherry Blossom Festival, vandals cut down about 140 of the trees and destroyed stone lanterns Prime Minister Miki gave Seattle. Recently, that sort of hate and ignorance reared its ugly head again when someone chopped down the cherry trees planted last year around the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington in Seattle.
But hate and ignorance will not win. Thousands of people will descend on the Seattle Center on April 11-13 to celebrate our ties with Japan and Japanese culture. This is a free, fun and family friendly event. Look for The North American Post booth when you visit.
Info: www.seattlecenter.com/events/featured-events/festal/seattle-cherry-blossom-festival
