Bonsai tree growing since 1625 survived Hiroshima, keeps chugging

Just five years before this Japanese white pine bonsai tree was planted in Japan, pilgrims arrived in North America. Since 1625 — 388 years ago — the small tree has been pampered and pruned, enduring the threats of time, weather and war. While we aren't sure of the exact path it took before World War II, on Aug. 6, 1945, the sage-like perennial was sitting on a bench in a family garden when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, less than two miles from the house. A tall wall protected the ancient tree from the explosion. Nearly 400 years later, the United States and Japan have made huge transformations, and the bonsai, now housed in the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., lives on.

The then-owner described the experience:

On that day, Shigeru said that all the family members (his grandparents and their young son-Shigeru's father) were inside their home. The bomb exploded about three kilometers (less than two miles) from the family compound. The blast blew out all the glass windows in the home, and each member of the family was cut from the flying glass fragments. Miraculously, however, none of them suffered any permanent injury. [...]

The great old Japanese white pine and a large number of other bonsai were sitting on benches in the garden. Amazingly, none of these bonsai was harmed by the blast either, because the nursery was protected by a tall wall. A Japanese broadcasting company would later film the bonsai garden and report on how the wall had saved the bonsai.