By Choi Yearn-hong
Washington, D.C. is usually beautiful with cherry blossoms in the last week of March and the first week of April. Cherry blossoms are great. Pink. Fluffy. A harbinger of warm days ahead.
Blossoms are always delicately glorious in chilly air. The last weekend was bleak. Chilly. Rainy. Muddy. Today and tomorrow, the blossoms peak. One million or more tourists come here to see the cherry blossoms every year. Welcome to this town at the Tidal Basin.
Soon, the blossoms will be gone. The azalea festival will replace the cherry blossom festival. Then, dogwood flowers, the state flower of Virginia, will last through April and May.
The Tidal Basin was a light blush of pink this morning, with the cherry blossoms at their peak. Last week, they were like a teenage beauty in early bloom. Today, they were like mature women in their 20s.
The cherry flowers do not have beauty in their 30s, because they end their glorious blooming quickly after a week or so. It's hard to predict the peak time for the blossoms, so watching them is exciting or disappointing.
Out of town travelers often miss the peak, but they still see preteen stages of early bloom, or the fallen petals on green grass and on the surface of the water.
The Tidal Basin is always full of water from the Potomac River, even during dry seasons, but it is always beautiful with the spring rain of March and April. It was once a wetland and makes a lake with its entrance and exit into the river.
A bridge over the Basin was well designed for juxtaposing the beauty of the blossoms. Lines of cherry trees and stone lanterns were gifts from the mayor of Tokyo in 1910 and 1912.
The Cherry Blossom Festival has involved Japanese government delegates and tourists, including the Cherry Blossom Princess.
I would like to comment on a couple of issues related to this festival. One is a silly claim by some Koreans who think that the cherry trees planted here were originally from Jeju Island. The first Japanese cherry trees did not survive, so the second group came from Jeju.
In 1943, former President Syngman Rhee claimed that the cherry trees were from Korea, and not from Japan, when the American people were angry about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Who knows? It might be true.
Korea was under Japanese colonial rule then. Meanwhile, the mayor of Tokyo presented 2,000 cherry trees to the people of the United States, so the nationality of the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin is Japanese, not Korean. Anyway, no one can distinguish between cherry trees from Japan or Korea.
I've seen beautiful cherry blossoms in Japan and Korea in the early spring. If someone conducted research on the origin of the cherry trees in the Tidal Basin, it would be purely academic. Now, there are 4,000 cherry trees at the Tidal Basin and its vicinity.
The nature in Japan and Korea is not very different. The two countries should conduct a joint cherry blossom festival for friendship and eco-cultural relations. I hope the two nations' friendship always blossoms like cherries; that would be beautiful.
One serious crisis faced by the cherry trees took place here after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, which sparked American involvement in World War II in the 1940s. Many American people wanted to chop all the trees down, but they survived.
Whenever Japanese-U.S. diplomatic relations were strained, the Japanese cherry trees were stressed, but survived and endured. The diplomatic relationship may go up and down from time to time, but the idea of cutting down the trees was never a good idea.
Trees are not guilty, but beautiful. Changing international relationships should not hurt the beautiful trees. Rather, good memories should be preserved and celebrated.
Cherry blossoms are the best tourist attraction for the nation's capital in the midst of Japanese-U.S. friendship. I saw the crowds along the Potomac River today. But one National Park Service ranger I met told me that the crowds were smaller than last year.
The current recession has reduced the size of the crowd. Faltering economies can affect everything. This is understandable! But I saw a large crowd, a long march of blossom watchers along the river. It seemed endless. The traffic flow was controlled.
From the Tidal Basin, I could imagine the beauty of the cherry blossoms on Jeju Island, the naval port city of Jinhae, and Yeouido on the banks of the Han River, all white, pink and fluffy. As a matter of fact, cherry flowers decorate every town and county in Korea.
But the most unforgettable cherry blossoms were at Changgyeong Palace in the night during my childhood and adolescent days with my young mother. I saw a blizzard of petals rushing into the sky. My mother wanted to see the cherry blossoms in Yeouido in her fading years.
She was born with the cherry blossoms and passed away with them. She loved the blossoms. The past always contains the most beautiful of things. Retrieving childhood memories makes an old man sustain his life in the sunset.
A couple of cherry trees in my front yard have also blossomed. But the Cherry Blossom Festival with the Japanese Embassy's Cherry Blossom Princess deserves the large crowds at the Tidal Basin.
The lantern lighting ceremony by the princess last week was a prelude to the weeklong festival. Right now, the loveliest of trees, the cherry, is hung with blooms along its boughs. Very soon, I will see cherry blossoms that will have fallen on my mother's headstone.
The Yeouido Cherry Blossoms Festival starts just after the Tidal Basin Cherry Blossoms Festival ends. Let's celebrate all cherry blossoms. Spring is beautiful!
Dr. Choi is a poet and writer. He can be reached at yearnhchoi@gmail.com.