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| | Japanese cherry blossom festivals |
 | | For three days, Japanese dancers, puppeteers, sword makers, and other performers and artists presented traditional and contemporary arts of Japan to over 30,000 people. |
 | | The annual festival began in 1976, when the late Prime Minister Takeo Miki and the Japanese government gave Seattle a gift of one thousand cherry trees to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial. |
 | | The gift was also a personal thank you from the Prime Minister for the time that he had spent in Seattle as a student, when he developed close ties with the city. |
| www.arts.wa.gov /progFA/AsianFest/CherryBloss/facherryb3.html (826 words) |
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