Burnside Bridge blossoms

It turned out to be a beautiful weekend in the Rose City, and Steve harvested a bumper crop of lovely photographs. Unless something more urgent intervenes, we’ll have a series of blossom images to start each morning this week.

This shot of the Burnside Bridge shows some of the 100 sakura cherry trees planted as part of the Japanese Historical Plaza memorial to citizens interned in World War II camps. According to i-Explore,
“During WWII, well over 100,000 persons of Japanese descent (more than half were children) living in the Western U.S. were effectively incarcerated without trial. They lost everything but what fit into modest-sized suitcases: years of hard work and diligence erased, businesses lost, futures, and hope … William Sumio Naito’s family among them. The Naitos returned. Their contributions to the community became many and various. He said Nay-toe, everyone else says Nigh-toe. Bill was self-invented and stubborn as hell. The plaza is flanked by the Willamette River and Naito Parkway, the latter renamed in memoriam for Bill.”

Got that? The street is named for Bill, so it’s Nay-to.