(Photo: Sage Ross)
This Japanese White Pine bonsai, planted in 1625, has survived the ravages of both time and atomic warfare. It was in Hiroshima, Japan when the US dropped an atomic bomb on that city on August 6, 1945. 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.
Link -via Twisted Sifter