A yellow poplar tree, just like UNC’s beloved Davie Poplar, will now watch over the campus community of Fukushima University in Japan.
To honor the legacy of friendship and goodwill between the Tar Heels and Japan, Carolina sent textbooks and a yellow poplar sapling to Fukushima University, where a tree-planting ceremony on the central plaza was held in November.
Local newspapers in Japan covered the event, and Jan Bardsley, associate professor and chair of Asian studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, helped to translate articles about the ceremony into English with the help of UNC alum Makiko Humphreys.
Bardsley is serving as the resident director for the UNC study abroad program in Osaka in fall 2011. In October, she took seven UNC students to Hiroshima to see the Peace Memorial Museum and Park and to visit Miyajima. They were accompanied by Hiroshima University students.
UNC has a long history of friendship with Japan. In 1951, Carolina sent trees and library books to Hiroshima University after the atomic disaster in World War II. UNC wanted to also reach out to Fukushima University after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that followed the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
According to an article in the Asahi newspaper, Fukushima University officials said, “The yellow poplar has a long life span. We wish that for hundreds of years to come, it will keep watch over our university.”
