By Japan News
June 25, 2026
Roses grown in memory of Anne Frank are in full bloom at Takaido Junior High School in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father, gifted the school with the rose plant a half-century ago.
TOKYO >> About 200 rose plants of a variety named in honor of a young writer who died in the Holocaust have bloomed at Takaido Junior High School in Suginami, Tokyo.
The roses are referred to by the school as “Rose of Anne Frank.” Anne perished in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Otto Frank, Anne’s father, presented the school with some of the rose plants a half- century ago, and the school has nurtured them with great care ever since.
A Belgian horticulturist developed the variety in memory of Anne Frank and gave it to her father. Its buds are red, and as they bloom, the flowers change in hue from orange to pink, a unique characteristic of the variety.
About 50 years ago, Takaido students read a Japanese translation of Anne’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” and wrote compositions in the form of letters to Anne. The school compiled them into a collection, which they sent to her father.
That inspired a correspondence between the students and Otto Frank. During their exchanges, the students shared their wishes to plant the rose at the school as a symbol of peace, and Frank sent 10 plants to Japan. Three were planted at the school.
In 2004, school parents and local residents formed a group to tend the roses. Currently, about 40 people are still helping students care for the flowers.
The school also donated roses to more than 100 schools and other places in Japan.