How a 400-Year-Old Tree Survived the Bombing of Hiroshima
A bonsai tree survived the bombing that obliterated 90 percent of Hiroshima.
On August 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, 90 percent of the city was wiped out, with 80,000 inhabitants being killed instantly, and over 100,000 more dying from the aftereffects of the nuclear explosion. Despite the mass destruction that the bombing caused, it left a handful of bonsai trees growing in the outdoor nursery of the Yamaki family unharmed. One of these trees, now almost 400 years old, is still standing today.
The White Pine’s Connection to Hiroshima
Master Masaru Yamaki was the head of his family and lived just two miles from the epicenter of the Hiroshima bombing of 1945. When the bomb was dropped, the Yamaki family was at home, while the now infamous bonsai tree sat peacefully in a walled nursery right outside their house. The blast sent shards of glass from their windows flying into the Yamaki home, but they were mostly unharmed (except for a few minor cuts and bruises). The tree, however, remained standing and unscathed.
In 1976, Master Yamaki gifted the bonsai tree to the U.S. as a symbol of friendship between the two nations; however, the…
