Hi everyone, the City of Vancouver is considering removing the Sakura Trees at Oppenheimer Park to make way for an Olympic development. A petition has been started by a group of Japanese Canadians to stop this from happening. These Sakura Trees were planted there over 30 years ago to commemorate 100 years of Japanese immigration in Canada. These trees need to be saved in order to preserve the legacy of Japanese Canadians in this country. A friend of mine, Derek Iwanaka (whose grandfather actually helped plant these trees in 1977) is part of the group that started this growing petition. He also appeared on Global news on July 8th to raise awareness of what the city wants to do. Having all lived in Japan as JETs, we know that Sakura Trees are symbolic of Japanese culture. Please help my friend Derek and his group of Japanese Canadians save the Sakura trees by signing their on-line petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?powell77
