SHORT STORY

Flower Cars - Goodwill ambassadors tour Japan


In 1963, when the Kodomo no Kuni ("Children’s Land") recreation area was being built to commemorate the marriage of the Crown Prince to Michiko Shoda, a national campaign, supported by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper company and 46 administrative divisions of Japan, was launched to deliver flowers from all over the country to Kodomo no Kuni.
Chosen to play the principle role of goodwill ambassadors in this campaign were "Flower Cars" - actually the Bluebird (312). At the time, the national road network was not well developed; once you left a built-up area you would find the roads were not always paved. To survive these conditions, the Flower Cars, which toured the entire country in just 40 days, had to be very tough while also offering excellent driving ease and comfort.
On February 16, five Bluebirds started off from outside the Tokyo Government Office. At each stop on their tour of Japan, they were to exchange Yoshino cherry blooms from Tokyo for the flower representing the local prefecture. These prefectural flowers were then delivered to Kodomo no Kuni. All stages of the trip were accomplished without any problems, and the Flower Cars, which had so brilliantly demonstrated the reliability of the Bluebird, were decorated with the autographs of the nation’s prefectural governors.




After setting off from the Tokyo Government Office on February 16, 1963, the Flower Cars toured Japan collecting the autographs of prefectural governors along the way.
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