“A man’s virtue is his monument…” Egyptian tombstone inscription, ca. 2200 B.C. (Bartlett.)
L’Enfant planned that our park would have memorials to virtuous persons, to emulate. As Washington Monument was rising, Commodore Matthew Perry returned from Asia with gifts for the nation. The Narrative of his expedition opines that memorial stones for the Monument were a way that foreign friends could “claim kindred share” with the virtue for which Washington had long been world famous.
In 1954, Japan timed its post-World-War-II gift of the Japanese Lantern at Tidal Basin to emphasize 100 years of friendship with America since Perry’s 1854 Treaty. On the Lantern’s roof is the crest of Tokugawa Shogun I (1603-5) Ieyasu, the George Washington of Japan. He brought feuding clans into a united Japan and established rule of law. He shared with Washington the wish for justice and world peace.
This year, on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the United States Postal Service could celebrate the 100th anniversary of President Taft’s 1915 gift of dogwood trees to Japan in response to its 1912 gift of cherry trees to us. Read more about the commemorative “Friendship Forever” stamps at https://about.usps.com/…/national-releases/2015/pr15_023.htm.
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