New Beginnings: Germany and Japan
Germans and Americans Forge Life-Long Friendship in Aftermath of Second World War
Laura Hallinger, Pasadena, California, 2006
We began sharing our love with the world in 1948. Pasadena decided to “adopt” a heavily bombed town in Germany, and Ludwigshafen was chosen because the Pasadena Friends Service Committee already had a clothing depot there. Pasadenans were asked to send warm clothing and blankets and Ludwigshafen became our first sister city. It was suggested that if anyone would be interested in corresponding with the recipients, addresses could be slipped into a pocket.
Our family of four children started a wonderful life-long relationship writing to a German family with five children. In 1965 when my parents visited them, Frau Clemons showed them a shoe box filled with letters and pictures. We began hosting exchange students in 1986, and have been so blessed by the 85 Germans that we have hosted and learned to love. Our entire family has been touched by this program. Two of our sons’ families housed German exchange visitors and visited Ludwigshafen. Three of our grandchildren have been to our German sister city, the youngest flying there to stay with a family at the age of 12.
In 2003 we visited Ludwigshafen and saw all of our “grandchildren” who had moved away. When we go to Germany we feel like we are coming home. In another month, we are “expecting” our 20th German great-grandchild!
Today, the U.S. has 118 German sister city partnerships.
The First U.S. — Japan Sister City Connection
The first sister city linkage between the United States and Japan joined St. Paul, Minnesota with Nagasaki. Their relationship began December 7, 1955, on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that initiated hostilities between the two countries.
While touring Peace Park in Nagasaki in 1990, Mayor Jim Scheibel of St. Paul paid tribute to the victims of the atomic bomb and said:
“It is important that we honor the memory of war victims, in our country as well as Japan. The best way to do that is to work to make sure that this kind of war and destruction never happen again. That’s what sister city relationships and people-to-people diplomacy are all about.”
Today, the U.S. has 206 Japanese sister city partnerships, the largest in the entire Sister Cities International network.
