Police in Chiba said Friday they are looking for the person or persons responsible for cutting down 30 cherry blossom trees in the city's Chuo Ward.
The vandalism was reported by an NPO which said that sometime last week, the trees were cut down by a saw. TV Asahi reported that the majority of the trees had been planted by children along the path of a river seven years ago.
Police said that young Yoshino cherry trees, which had grown to have trunks of around 10 cm in diameter, were among those vandalized.
© Japan Today
42 Comments
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some14some
replant.
ifd66
replant. With cherry trees that actually produce cherries!
Disillusioned
Anybody wanna speculate about a motive? Teenagers just being vandals or some old person with a grudge against cheery blossom trees?
gelendestrasse
either way the vandals are jerks
ka_chan
Sad, just sad and during Sakura season.
Elbuda Mexicano
Poor kids! I hope the kids, their families etc..REPLANT these beautiful trees right away! Who ever was responsible for cutting down the cherry tries must be crazy or have some nutter mixed grudge against cherry trees?? We all know George Washington and his famous line, "Daddy, I can not tell a lie, I cut down the cherry tree." Do hope this phrase is taught to our Japanese students and friends. By the way, no CC cameras to video tape this part of Chiba?? How in the heck can you cut down so many trees and NO BODY SEES THIS JERK or JERKS cutting the trees down??
Serrano
Weird.
paulinusa
Most likely young and drunk.
kimuzukashiiiii
Disillusioned, In this country, I rarely see or hear of teenagers being vandalizing little thugs. Of course they do exist (my hubby was quite the little hell raiser) but they seem to prefer other kinds of entertainment.
On the contrary, its usually some local grumpy oyaji doing vandalism, (and other random crimes, like poisoning animals in the local park... )
I predict a grumpy old man who lives alone, and the excuse will come out like "I live nearby and all the hanami parties and general happiness which stemmed from them were noisy and disrupted my 8 o clock bedtime. Once a party even accidentally left a potato chip and a cigarette butt in the area after the party. I wanted to make them stop."
Tamarama
Cut off his balls.
Dukeleto
What a knob/s!
MarkG
And the jerk accomplished what?
smithinjapan
kimuzukashii: "Disillusioned, In this country, I rarely see or hear of teenagers being vandalizing little thugs."
You must be wearing blinders, because you can read about little thugs beating up homeless or vandalizing things daily. But I DO think this was the act of some crazed older person, and not a teen. Don't ask me why, but that's my feeling.
In any case, it's a shame. The biggest shame being they were trees planted by kids. I don't see what this solves.
Virtuoso
When they catch him, they should tie him to a still-standing tree with yellow ribbons and make him watch while drunken revelers sing and carouse. "Make the punishment fit the crime" as they sang in The Mikado.
nandakandamanda
Cut down, quote: 'by a saw'.
Not an axe then. A hand saw, a chain saw? With a chain saw it would be dead easy, but by hand it would take time and energy, suggesting someone with a serious grudge.
kimuzukashiiiii
smithinjapan - Well of COURSE it happens, there are little brats everywhere.
In Japan, it seems that if Teens go bad they go very very bad, and beat up homeless, stab their own mother or something. Not randomly cut down trees for fun...
But agree with you that its very sad for the kids who planted them.
as_the_crow_flies
They should find the culprit as soon as possible. I see a bright future for him in Japanese politics.
25psot
Some crazy at work.
Frungy
What a shame, especially for those children who planted them 7 years ago, watched them grow and for whom they doubtless carried tremendous sentimental value.
Its hard to know how to redress this incident. On one hand they are just a bunch of trees, and so simple replacement with similarly aged trees should be sufficient, however on the other hand they had sentimental value and their importance as cultural symbols in Japan elevates their value above simple replacement.
I'd say that a reasonable compromise might be to capture the offender and sentence them to purchasing, planting and caring for 210 cherry blossom saplings for a period of 7 years. Why 210? Because those 30 cherry blossom trees were 7 years old. Thus their value is 7 times more than a sapling, plus making him responsible for their wellbeing for 7 years may give the individual some perspective on the devotion and care it took for others to raise those trees.
Naturally is a tree dies the offender's sentence is extended, they need to plant a new one and care for it until it is 7 years old. Thus lack of care and attention are self-correcting.
nath
@smithinjapan
(It definately aint george washington)..
"But I DO think this was the act of some crazed older person"
I'm feelin that too.
wtfjapan
im thinking its payback for the whales, they still have a few more to cut down before they call it even.
wtfjapan
no its for research, the only way we can do research on cherry blossom trees is to cut them down to see whats happening inside, then they sell the leftovers as firewood, no use in wasting all that research.
wtfjapan
a chainsaw would make too much noise especially at night, handsaw while takes a lot of effort is quiet which is why he didnt get caught, im guessing there will be cherry blossom patrols in the coming months. LOL
bgaudry
Twats.
CGB Spender
Even in Japan low-life vandals exist. You can leave your bonsai here on the street near your house and nobody will steal or vandalize them. Yet sometimes it seems some exceptions occur.
tmarie
That s lot of effort for vandalism and I doubt many folks would bother with it. Someone with an issue with the city or school that planted the trees perhaps?
CraigHicks
Any monetary value? During Cherry Blossom Season you can buy a branch of cherry blossoms. I've never done it myslef but I can guess it is expensive.
gogogo
Most likely the same kids now grown up.
Kurobune
Terrible !
squeeks
Those kids probably worked so hard for those trees to grow. If I was one of those kids, I'd be ticked. All those kids wanted to do was share their love for their community and nature. Whoever did it is a straight out d!ck.
cwhite
cutting 30 x 10cm tree trucks has got to be hard work if it was done manually, I reckon an electric saw which is reasonably quiet
badsey3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JFOoOsT4dM
Surf O'Holic
@elbuda, the story about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree is a fable, along with the quote.
Why would anyone cut down those trees?
wtfjapan
now some people can appreciate what others feel like when a whale is slaughtered.
ChibaChick
This doesnt smack of mindless vandalism to me - the effort involved is too high. A teenage vandal would have hacked down one or two and then got bored and moved on. This seems like someone with a grudge.
Marilita Fabie-Fujisawa
I live near a " danchi" where there were rows of cherry tress along the sidewalk but has been cut by order of the city's municipal...I couldn't understand why. When I asked the reason, they said because of the insects ...????? What a pity it was to see it go, now you can see an old painted facade of the danchi and gone are the days where there were full blown huge trees of cherry.
Dennis Bauer
I hope some camera spotted who did this!
Magnus Roe
Tree vandalizing is common in rural northern Europe, although usually within a few days of planting. It's a little sad to see this place adopting more and more of the plights of western countries. I think you people are overestimating the impact this has on the children though, likely they didn't "work" very hard for the trees and it was just something they were told to do. I planted trees in kindergarten and I can't even remember where that was now.
Nessie
Anyone else think of the first scene of Cool Hand Luke?
Ah So
Ahhhh...probably being sold as decorations in some flower shops....
RentonThurston
That is very cruel, taking out Japan's beautiful trees .... :(