Ninet years ago, on March 27, 1912, passersby on the northern bank of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. may have been surprised to see two elegant ladies digging holes. They may have been even more surprised had they known that the women were Helen Taft, wife of U.S. President William Howard Taft, and Viscountess Iwa Chinda, wife of Japan's ambassador to the United States, planting the first of 3,000 cherry trees given to Washington by the city of Tokyo.