Everett, Wa and Iwakuni, Japan to Celebrate 50 Years as Sister Cities

Everett Community College will be hosting a special celebration next month to mark half a century between Everett, WA and Iwakuni, Japan as sister cities. Here are the details from EvCC…

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The cities of Everett, WA and Iwakuni, Japan will celebrate the 50-year anniversary of their sister city relationship with art and musical performances 1 to 2:30 p.m. Oct. 5.

Iwakuni Mayor Yoshihiko Fukuda and 50 Iwakuni citizens who are visiting for the anniversary will attend. The event is at Everett Community College’s Henry M. Jackson Conference Center, 2000 Tower St. in Everett, and is free and open to the public.

The two cities established their relationship in 1962 and were among the first to join Sister Cities International. To celebrate the golden anniversary of the sister city relationship, the delegation members, including Japanese dance specialists and musicians, will perform traditional Japanese dances, music and calligraphy demonstrations.

Dances will be led by specialists Kanmitsu Fujima and Toshizu Fujima and musical performances using traditional Japanese instruments shamisen and koto, will be directed by Hidekiyo Fujimoto and Kachiho Miyamoto. A calligraphy demonstration will be conducted by artist Kinun Morisato.

The group will also provide a special performance for Whittier Elementary School students and staff on the same day with parents and guardians of Whittier students invited to attend the performance from 10 to11 a.m. in the school cafeteria.

The relationship between the two cities was started by U.S. Marine Corp Major E.R. (Bud) Agnew of Everett, who was stationed in Iwakuni in 1962, and Midori Sagami, an English teacher in Iwakuni. The two men knew each other first as friends, and then as the people who would carry forward President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s initiative to create partnerships between American cities and international communities.

EvCC’s Nippon Business Institute maintains particularly strong links to Japan. At EvCC, local students study Japanese language, economics, business and cultural arts. High school students from Iwakuni have participated in exchange programs administered by the NBI since 1996. The NBI’s Japanese garden includes a bridge made of timbers from the reconstructed Kintai Bridge in Iwakuni, built in and donated by the city of Iwakuni.

For more information about the anniversary celebration, contact EvCC Nippon Business Institute Program Coordinator Kathleen Koss at kkoss@everettcc.edu or 425-388-9195.