Nurturing Peace with War Approaching
As the 1912 trees became an established Washington landmark, they quickly came to represent life in the U.S. capital, as well as Japan and its people. In this editorial cartoon, Washington’s cherry blossoms are used as seasonal, place-based markers for America’s role on the world stage as World War II was heating up in April 1939. Political cartoonist Herbert Block (known as Herblock) shows an anxious President Roosevelt kneeling in front of robustly blossoming cherry trees while tending withering olive branches as fragile symbols of peace.
As the 1912 trees became an established Washington landmark, they quickly came to represent life in the U.S. capital, as well as Japan and its people. In this editorial cartoon, Washington’s cherry blossoms are used as seasonal, place-based markersfor America’s role on the world stage as World War II was heating up in April 1939. Political cartoonist Herbert Block (known as Herblock) shows an anxious President Roosevelt kneeling in front of robustly blossoming cherry trees while tending withering olive branches as fragile symbols of peace.