100th Anniversary of Cherry Blossom Gift 2012
ISS Board Member, Rod Ross (front right) hosts the Illinois State Society table at the 2012 Cherry Blossom Festival Ball at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC. 2012 was the 100th anniversary of Japan's gift of 3,000 flowering cherry blossom trees to the city of Washington, DC in 1912 from Mayor Yukiko Ozaki of Tokyo.
Ozaki was called the father of parliamentary democracy in Japan and he remained publicly a friend to America even during World War II which put him in trouble with Prime Minister Tojo.