Iowa Friendship Bell is a symbol of generosity

Everybody knows about the Japanese cherry blossom trees in Washington, D.C. They were a gift to the United States by the people of Tokyo as a gesture of friendship following the United States’ brokering of peace between Russia and Japan in the Russo Japanese War. However, not as many people know about an equally as generous gift, the Yamanashi Friendship Bell, within sight of the State House on Capitol Hill in Des Moines.

The Russo Japanese War began with Japan’s invasion of Korea in 1904. Russia, which also wanted the peninsula as part of its eastward expansion, had positioned troops in the harbor at Port Arthur and along the Yalu River. The Russian Navy was quickly defeated in a surprise attack, suffered the death of its commander and the loss of its flagship, and in the subsequent disorganization, Russia’s armed forces suffered more than 2,500 casualties on the first day.

The Motherland, however, began shipping in reinforcements via the Transiberian Railroad and the Japanese found themselves outnumbered by more than 50,000 soldiers. Despite the overwhelming numbers against them, the Japanese maintained control of Port Arthur, but, a year later, were confronted with a Russian Army of 350,000, a force the Japanese could keep at bay for a while, but not on a prolonged basis.

To resolve the stalemate, President Theodore Roosevelt offered to step in and negotiate an agreement. He summoned delegates from both sides to Portsmouth, Maine and a compromise was reached in which Japan would retain control over Korea and Russia would receive Sakhalin Island (this area would remain critical to the Russians, as it was over Sakhalin Island in 1983 that, believing a civilian jetliner was spying on Naval operations there, Russia shot down Korean Airlines Flight 007, killing 269 people).

In response to brokering peace, President Roosevelt was accorded the Nobel Peace Prize and Helen Taft, wife of William Howard Taft, who had been an Ambassador to the Far East, first conceived of a gift to the United States of the beautiful cherry trees she had admired while in Japan.

In 1909, 2,000 trees were shipped to the nation’s capital city, but were found to be infested with beetles, and were destroyed. Three years later, 3,000 trees were given to the people of the U.S. from the people of Tokyo, and it is these saplings, and their descendants, which we enjoy on the shores of the Tidal Basin in D.C. today.

As we mark the 110th anniversary of the colorful gift in Washington from the people of Japan, we should also mark the 60th anniversary of another gift from the people of that nation, this time to the citizens of Iowa, at Des Moines.

In 1959, just fourteen years after the end of World War II, the islands of Japan were particularly hard hit by a typhoon, whose devastation was concentrated in the Yamanashi Prefecture of Japan, about fifty miles south of Tokyo. The storm and winds, equal to and exceeding that of Iowa’s Derecho in 2020, flattened nearly 2,000 homes and rendered an additional 14,000 as unlivable. Unfortunately, unlike the Iowa Derecho of 2020, sixty people lost their lives in the disaster.

With the memories of war behind them, and in the spirit of peace (just as the cherry blossoms were three quarters of a century before), the people of Iowa responded with care and compassion. 4-H Clubs across the state, the Corn Growers Association, and just simply concerned farmers, pooled their resources together and founded a relief organization to provide for the stricken residents of Japan.

Within weeks, 55 pigs had been put on airplanes and were delivered to the largely agricultural region. Farmers who had been put out of business, were able to raise livestock again and, with the arrival of 60,000 bushels of grain, feedstock was available for them, and the population of the prefecture.

Afterward, the people of Yamanashi, who otherwise had no idea how they would survive, expressed their gratitude by donating a giant 2,000 pound bell, to the state of Iowa. The bell, standing more than four feet tall and decorated with intricate carvings of Japanese lore, was formally accepted, and opened to the public, in Iowa on Oct. 17, 1962.

It was installed as the centerpiece of a rustic Zen pagoda (also provided by the people of Japan) on the summit of a bluff overlooking the Capitol and the city of Des Moines, where it remains today somewhat hidden and obscure in the shadow of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and the new Supreme Court Building.

The cherry blossoms in D.C. are celebrated and remembered every Spring. Let us remember, this autumn, the generosity of the people of Iowa and Japan and celebrate that philanthropic spirit of international cooperation for which the Yamanashi Friendship Bell stands. Let humanitarianism ring!