Cherry Tree Centennial

Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth NH -- May 11, 2012

Strawbery Banke Museum -- Lawrence J. Yerdon, President and CEO, Remarks

Welcome to Strawbery Banke Museum and the core waterfront Portsmouth neighborhood called Puddle Dock.

We gather in the space we call our Community Garden to remember a time when Portsmouth people contributed to producing an atmosphere that would help President Theodore Roosevelt win a Nobel Peace Prize. When we were Roosevelt’s designated hosts for the peace conference that hoped to end the Russo-Japanese War.

One of those families – the Shapiros – lived right here in Puddle Dock. Their house, just up Jefferson Street from here, is interpreted to tell the story of Sam Shapiro a refugee from the War that the Portsmouth Peace Treaty would end.

In 1905, Sam Shapiro and his friends, who would found Temple Israel later that fall, were among the very few who spoke Russian when the Russian diplomats came to town. When asked they told the delegates of the better life they had found here in Portsmouth and asked when the anti-Jewish pogroms in their homeland would end.

These citizen diplomats were part of what made this community such a special, welcoming place during the Treaty negotiations, so it is appropriate that a cherry tree, descended from the Washington trees that were a gift from Japan in appreciation for American help with those negotiations should be planted here. In the Community Garden and in view of the Shipyard across the river, in view of the Shapiro House and in view of ordinary people passing by.

This special cherry tree commemorates the friendship between the United States and Japan and especially the part people from ordinary Portsmouth neighborhoods including Puddle Dock played in one of the most historic moments in our history.

Thank you, Consul General.

We at Strawbery Banke Museum are honored to accept this tree from the Government of Japan. With its roots in history, its care in the capable hands of our historic landscapes curator, and its future an enduring symbol of citizen diplomacy, long may it and our friendship thrive.

We know that as a descendant of the original 1912 yoshino trees the Government of Japan planted in Washington DC, this tree carries the special symbolism back to Portsmouth of being a gift made in appreciation for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, signed here in 1905. As a partner with the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire in commemorating the Treaty in 2005 and since, we were honored to be among those selected for the planting of one of Portsmouth’s commemorative cherry trees.

As the museum of Portsmouth’s neighborhoods, representing the community made up of so many individuals and the place in history they hold, Strawbery Banke Museum is especially aware of the contributions individuals can make. As a symbol of citizen diplomacy and with careful watering -- which you began as one individual on behalf of the people of Japan with a traditional 17th century watering jug -- we expect the cherry tree you gave us will flourish. We are confident that the tree, now a treasured part of the Strawbery Banke Museum garden, will grace our spring for at least the next 100 years.