What's blooming in Tachikawa?

Cosmos flowers! One hill is sparkling with lemonade yellow blossoms mixed with fizzy white ones. Two more are covered with multiple shades of pink, as far as the eye can see.

Almost as plentiful as the flowers are the people enjoying a day in the park. This is Showa Kinen Koen at its best.

Almost a century ago, the land was the site of an airplane factory. Even now, a handful of one-and-two-seaters is on display in a back corner of the park. Later, it became a hotspot of Japan's war effort. Still later, the airfield was taken over by a foreign government to use for their various war efforts.

And then...

The land reverted to Japan.

What would a nation that learned a very bitter lesson--that war's main product is human misery--do with this acreage next?

Japan planted trees, grass, and shrubs, landscaped the ponds and the lake, planted thousands and thousands of cosmos flowers, and threw open the gates. Welcome, one and all, to a place that celebrates life! Banzai for karmic makeovers!