When I lived in DC I had very mixed feelings about the impact of the Cherry Blossom Festival. On one hand its creates a ton of Tourism Revenue for the city, on the other the streets and parks become over crowded and you see the increase in litter and pollution at the parks.
I never heard this story and was only familiar with the story the Mayor of Tokyo donated the trees to establish friendly connections with the capital.
A quick search to the Wikipedia page though includes some detail about the Fairchild family.
Everyone wants their Facebook photo with the Jefferson Memorial in the background. I just wish they were aware enough to obey basic traffic rules and avoid walking in clearly marked bike lanes.
When I saw the headline, I expected this article would be about Jokichi Takamine, a biotechnology pioneer from Japan who paid for the 2000 sakura trees donated to DC by the governor of Tokyo. I wasn't aware of the Fairchild/Marlatt stories, so it's interesting to see how the multiple historical threads converge.
I never heard this story and was only familiar with the story the Mayor of Tokyo donated the trees to establish friendly connections with the capital.
A quick search to the Wikipedia page though includes some detail about the Fairchild family.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Cherry_Blossom_Festiv...