To celebrate Iowa’s 65-year relationship with the Yamanashi prefecture of Japan and Ames’ 35-year sister-state partnership with Koshu, Japan, Iowans have come together across the state for the Cranes of Friendship project.
The Yamanashi prefecture gifted Iowa a thousand handmade paper cranes to symbolize the connection and relationship between Iowans and Japanese citizens. The Japan America Society of Iowa (JASI) has invited people from across the state to participate in crafting one thousand origami cranes to gift to Yamanashi prefecture as a gesture of friendship and appreciation in return.
From 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ames Public Library, JASI and the Ames International Partner Cities Association committee (AICPA) taught Ames residents the art of origami to gather more cranes to send to Koshu.
“The way this project came to life was that we were gifted a thousand cranes from Yamanashi,” said Yoko Tanaka, executive director of JASI. “I thought it would be so wonderful to make a thousand counterparts here.”
“Our organization is non-profit to bring in immersive cultural experiences, like today,” Tanaka said. “Through many ways, we try to connect people together, people in Iowa to people in Japan. Through engaging local people, Iowa people, I also wanted people in Iowa to feel connected through crane-making.”
The main focus of the project is to emphasize the importance of the connection between folks in Iowa and in Japan and to continue supporting each other.
“It’s Iowans coming out to show their support in this important friendship with Japan,” President of AICPA Karla McCollum said. “This is an important relationship for the city of Ames and the city of Koshu, which is inside Yamanashi Prefecture. This is currently our only city partnership.”
Tanaka, who was born in Tokyo, Japan, makes it her mission to keep Japanese culture alive wherever she goes. As president of JASI, she strives to bridge the gap between Koshu and Ames. The Cranes of Friendship project is one way to show active support to Iowa’s sister-state partnership and pursue that international connection.
“I always felt like I need to be proper at representing Japanese culture; I always had that feeling… I always volunteered to show something about America to Japanese people, show something from Japan to American people, or help other people make connections,” Tanaka said.
The history of Iowa’s connection to the Yamanashi prefecture runs deep, and this project is meant to celebrate and honor the beauty of that bond.
In 1960, after a devastating typhoon wiped out Japan’s agricultural sector, Master Sergeant Richard Thomas, an Iowan who at the time was working for public relations for the U.S. Air Force in Tokyo, organized an operation to send Iowa hogs via cargo plane to Yamanashi in an effort to aid and revive the livestock and agricultural industry. Iowa farmers even provided the hogs with feed for a year to help aid the situation.
“The 65-year relationship for Iowa and Yamanashi goes back to the Iowa Hog Lift – many of the hogs were from right here in Story and Boone County,” McCollum said. “Now, if you go to Japan and eat any pork, it’s likely a genetic relative of those original 35 hogs that were sent. So, that’s where that 65-year relationship came from.”
“Pigs from Iowa, running around in Yamanashi! Can you believe that?” Tanaka said.
Yamanashi then repaid the act of kindness to show their gratitude by gifting Iowa the Bell of Friendship, which resides outside the State Capitol building in Des Moines.
“When people in Yamanashi were able to somewhat recover from the disaster, they collected money and they gifted to the state of Iowa the Friendship Bell. It is the same shape, same quality, same sound of the bell that you would see in temples in Japan,” Tanaka said.
Since then, Iowa and the Yamanashi prefecture have maintained a mutual relationship.
“In the floods of ’93, Yamanashi sent aid to Iowa during that, and also during the pandemic, they sent masks,” McCollum said. “So, they came to our aid.”
“We are very far apart, but we can help each other,” Tanaka said.
With Tanaka’s guiding hand, Iowans have united on this origami project to further show their respect, appreciation and good will to their partnered state connection to Japan.
“I’ve been going to different locations and teaching how to make cranes and harvesting the cranes from each place,” Tanaka said.
The cranes, each one strung together by Tanaka herself, will be displayed at the Iowa State Fair in August, in addition to being sent to the Yamanashi prefecture as a form of friendship and strengthening Iowa’s partnered state connection with Japan.
