The bonsai tree in a war museum
For my Labor Day, my friend Craig and I drove from Austin to Fredricksburg, Texas to visit the Nimitz Pacific War Museum. This is definitely a must-see; a museum of equal (or perhaps greater) quality of many in D.C. and around the country. We spent about 4 hours here, and that was cutting the visit short. There was a lot of stuff to see; a biography of Admiral Nimitz himself, a large Memorial courtyard, a museum dedicated to the history of the World War II Pacific Theater and the events leading up to Pearl Harbor, and a guided tour of several bunkers that included equipment (planes, tanks, bunkers, etc.) that was actually used in the war. It was quite the emotional and educational experience. And in the middle of all of these memorials to war, stands a small garden with a bonsai tree in the middle. This "Garden of Peace" was given to Admiral Nimitz by the Japanese as a "thank you" for returning to rebuild the war-torn Japan, to reconcile, a...