Object Lesson: One Man’s Life Dedicated to Peace. While the 1912 gift of cherry blossom trees from the city of Tokyo to Washington, D.C. is an enduring symbol of the U.S.–Japan friendship, former Japanese Ambassador Hirosi Saito also played an important role in our friendship in the 1930s.

Nakahara will introduce the Library’s collections related to Saito, along with his efforts to promote peace in the years before the outbreak of World War II. Saito’s granddaughter Tomiko Kagei will also join the conversation. 

Exploring Cherry Blossom Varieties is part of a series of three evening presentations will be presented by Mari Nakahara and Katherine Blood, authors of the book “Cherry Blossom: Sakura Collections from the Library of Congress” and curators in the Prints & Photographs Division. These events will not be recorded.