Sister cities celebrate 30-year friendship

The nearly week-long celebration in Independence of the Japanese Sister City program’s 30th anniversary ended Sunday as close to 50 visitors from the Far East said goodbye to their American friends.

The visitors, mostly from the Japanese city of Higashimurayama – Independence’s sister city located west of Tokyo – participated in a variety of events from Tuesday until Saturday, including a picnic at George Owens Park, a tour of the city, a trip to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum and visits to the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame and the Jazz Museum at the 18th and Vine District in Kansas City and a tour of Shatto Dairy near Lathrop. The group also paid a half-day visit to Glendale Elementary School on Friday, culminating that evening with a banquet reception at Arrowhead Club and a free-for-all “Family Day” Saturday with the guests’ local host families.

“Our guests have had a wonderful time,” said Joe Gall, member of the Japanese Sister City Commission. “We have kept them busy. I think they are very tired, but they are also very happy. They seemed to enjoy what we had planned for them.”

On Friday, a day an American Idol finalist from Blue Springs came back to the area to grand applause, Glendale staff and students and Independence officials treated the Japanese guests to a police-escorted motorcade through the city and an American and Japanese flag-waving welcome at Glendale worthy of royalty.

“This is a great experience for our kids and the adults as well,” said Jim Hinson, superintendent of the Independence School District. “It allows our students to see that the world is a large place, but it can be very small at the same time.”

Sue Hammett, a retired teacher of Glendale Elementary, said the group’s visit to Glendale was one of the best activities planned for the week. This year marked the 20th anniversary of a sister school partnership between Glendale Elementary and Megurita Elementary in Higashimurayama, Hammett said, adding Megurita’s recently retired principal, two Higashimurayama board members and its board president all made the trip.

Hammett, who approached school district and city officials 20 years ago to correlate the sister school program with the sister city program, said the outreach has continued since. Ten Glendale students make a trip each summer to Japan and 10 Megurita students do the same, while every fifth year, adult participants from each city make the pilgrimage.

Friday’s exuberant celebration at the school didn’t go unnoticed by the program’s founder.

“I think this is the best program we’ve ever had,” she said of the program that included slideshows, welcoming presentations and song and dance from members of Glendale’s Japanese Club. “The school looks fabulous.”

At the celebration, Yutaka Machida, president of the Higashimurayama School Board, summed up what could be standing policy between the two cities and their respective districts.

“You speak English and we speak Japanese,” Machida said, “but we are all on the same earth together in harmony.”