IMAGE GALLERY: Cherry Tree Captures Spirit of Portsmouth Peace Treaty

The waist-high cherry tree captured the spirit of the historic Portsmouth Peace Treaty: It, too, shall grow and flower.

"In the spirit of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty," Consul General Takeshi Hikihara of the Consulate General of Japan in Boston presented the gift of a cherry tree to Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth on Friday.

Lawrence J. Yerdon, president and CEO of Strawbery Banke Museum, and Martha Fuller Clark, chairwoman of its board of trustees, accepted the tree in a ceremony. 

It was the second of three cherry tree gifts officiated to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the planting of cherry trees in Washington, D.C., which were a gift from Japan. The trees planted Friday were cuttings from the original Washington trees, according to the program for the ceremony, overseen by Charles B. Doleac, president of the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire.

They are, the program celebrates, "a living memorial to the tradition of diplomacy."

Besides Strawbery Banke Museum, cherry trees were planted at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and at the Wentworth By the Sea Hotel to symbolize the roles of the Navy and the people of Portsmouth played in the historic 1905 treaty.

Know a great site for a Portsmouth Peace Treaty cherry tree? Visit Portsmouth Peacy Treaty or contact Doleac at cdoleac@nhlawfirm.com or Stephanie Seacord at sseacord@lemd.com