Japan-America Society of NH Celebrates 110th Anniversary By Planting Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial Trees Around the State

The cherry trees surrounding South Mill Pond and City Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire were planted in 1985, thanks to a gift from Nichinan, Japan – Portsmouth’s Sister City and the hometown of Baron Jutaro Komura, the lead Japanese diplomat at the 1905 peace conference that led to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War.  Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial trees are located it City Hall and in front of the Portsmouth Middle School, at Wentworth By the Sea Hotel, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and in the Community Garden at Strawbery Banke Museum.

To receive a cherry tree, each location has agreed to:

• Host a public program, “Teddy Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize and the Portsmouth Peace Treaty” by NH Humanities council scholar Charles B. Doleac, to understand the history of NH citizen diplomacy
• Plant and maintain the tree in a protected spot
• Commemorate Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day on September 5^th with bell-ringing at 3:47 pm.

Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial Trees are currently being planted around the state in:

• Hanover – where Japanese student Kan’ichi Asakawa attended Dartmouth College. He later wrote The Causes of the Russo-Japanese War and was funded by Dartmouth President William Tucker to travel to Portsmouth to observe the 1905 peace conference. Tree is located at Hanover Town Hall.

• Dublin – where Japanese Ambassador and public affairs liaison Baron Kentaro Kaneko frequently visited artist Joseph Smith and his wife Corinna (daughter of publisher G.P. Putnam). The Smiths were friends of Theodore Roosevelt, who introduced them to Kaneko before they traveled to Japan in 1901. The cherry tree is located at the Dublin Historical Society Schoolhouse Museum, where an 'autograph bench' from the Smiths' Dublin home -- that bears Kaneko's signature --  is on display.

• Manchester – where Baron Komura and Japanese newspapermen were entertained by local businessmen and other dignitaries during their stay in New Hampshire for the peace conference. The cherry tree is located at the Gen. John Stark Memorial in Stark Park.

• Lancaster – boyhood home of Henry Willard Denison, chief legal counsel to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, who accompanied the Japanese delegation to Portsmouth in 1905. The cherry tree is located in Cross Park opposite the Weeks Public Library. Col. Edward Cross was commander of the famed NH 5^th Regiment during the Civil War and was Denison’s father-in-law.

• Meredith – where Jutaro Komura spent a summer “rusticating” on a local farm between semesters at Harvard. The cherry tree is located near the public landing on Lake Winnipesaukee.

• Littleton – The cherry tree is located at the Littleton Area Senior Center, who hosted a 2015 NH Humanities Council program, “Teddy Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize” presented by Charles B. Doleac, president of JASNH and chair of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum.

In 2012, the 100^th anniversary of the gift of the iconic Washington DC cherry trees to the US by Japan, the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire (JASNH) learned that those famous trees were a direct result of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, negotiated in Portsmouth NH in 1905, ending the Russo-Japanese War.  Research showed that the Mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki, who facilitated the cherry tree gift, described in his autobiography a desire to thank the US for its role in ending the War. That conclusion resulted in a 2012 op-ed in the Washington Post by the Ambassador of Japan to the US and the JASNH being designated to receive cherry trees descended from the Washington trees in commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the diplomatic gift.

“In 2012, the Japan America Society of New Hampshire began planting those trees at key sites related to the Treaty history, as a living memorial to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty and the citizen diplomacy involved in reaching the successful conclusion.  Although President Theodore Roosevelt never came to Portsmouth, having promised Japan and Russia that he would not be at the table, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, for orchestrating the negotiations,” said Charles B. Doleac, president of the Japan-America Society of NH.  “By planting descendants of the iconic Washington cherry trees that are a living connection to the Treaty around New Hampshire, we create a living memorial to the Treaty and citizen diplomacy.”

2015 was the 110^th anniversary of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty. In addition to the planting of the cherry trees and the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day bell-ringing ceremony on September 5^th, the JASNH updated the exhibit at the John Paul Jones House Museum with new artifacts and details about the cherry trees and the legacy of the Treaty commemorations since the 100^th anniversary in 2005.

For more information about the Portsmouth Peace Treaty and the cherry trees, visit www.portsmouthpeacetreaty.org