The Greene County Democrat

Tag: Japan

  • Alabama and Japan Celebrate 40 Years of Friendship

    Alabama and Japan Celebrate 40 Years of Friendship

    Consul General Kenichi Matsuda and Honorary Consul General of Japan, Mark B. Jackson, at the Sakura Festival in Snow Hinton Park

    The Japanese American Society of Alabama (JASA) hosted the 40th Annual Sakura Festival in Snow Hinton Park to celebrate the economic and cultural connection between the two countries. The festival featured performances, games, snacks, and ceremonies prominent in Japanese culture.

    The beginning of economic ties between Japan and Alabama began in the 1970s and 1980s with the establishment of the Alabama Development Office, which established a Tokyo trade office to attract Japanese investors. The trade office allowed a direct link for Japanese business operations to receive support in Alabama, fostering the need for an organization like JASA to maintain cooperative relationships. In 1999, the organization’s efforts to bridge the gap between cultures resulted in an economic milestone with Honda announcing its first assembly plant in Talladega County. Since then, Japan’s economic influence in Alabama has generated thousands of jobs and investments that have surpassed ten billion dollars.

    Seeing the importance of Japan maintaining relationships, JASA sought to fortify a cultural understanding of Japan.

    It is no secret that Japan is a country with a unique way of life centered on humility and respect. Many customs in Japan require humbling oneself with constant consideration for those who are older or in higher positions of authority. Greetings are soft spoken and involve bowing, the complete opposite of an energetic, southern greeting with a handshake. JASA knew that “Alabama should understand and embrace not only Japanese business concepts and expectations but also cultural and educational issues.”

     

    A person wearing a blue kimono-style outfit dances in a field, holding a fan with writing on it. Others are dancing in the background under a clear blue sky.
    Awa Odori Dance Elaina Agnello

    The Sakura Festival itinerary and stalls were rich with Japanese culture, including information and graphics about Tuscaloosa’s sister city in Japan, Norishino. After a warm welcome, Honorary Consul General of Japan Mark B. Jackson took to the stage. “This is the most honorable thing I’ve been doing,” he stated. Jackson has represented Alabama in Japan for over a decade and deeply appreciates the Japanese way of life. Once he finished addressing the crowd, he welcomed Consul General Kenichi Matsuda, who flew in from Japan for the event. Matsuda is grateful for the “southern hospitality” and welcoming atmosphere he can experience here in the States. He is committed to doing his “utmost to further advance the friendship and partnership between our two nations.” The two participated in a sake barrel-breaking ceremony to signify harmony and good fortune.

    Jackson and Matsuda in the sake barrel breaking ceremony

    Alongside friendship meetings and festivals, JASA sends students to Japan in an exchange program over the summer to further understand education. The program sends twenty high school students to Japan in June to stay with families, and the Japanese students return with them in July for two weeks as well. This exchange is imperative for the current generations to appreciate what each culture offers to the other. As Executive Director of Tuscaloosa Sister Cities International, Shelley Corrill said, “How can you not love each other when you’re eating barbecue or sushi together?”

    The relationship between Japan and Alabama is a vital component of the state’s economy. Companies like Daikin, Toray, and various automotive suppliers have a strong impact on the automotive and manufacturing markets, especially in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Decatur. Without Japan’s friendship, thousands would go unemployed. JASA’s continued efforts remind us of the importance of working with other nations instead of against them. In the words of Honorary Consul Jackson, “It’s all about one word—relationships.”

    To learn more about JASA and future cultural events, visit https://japanalabama.com/

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  • Obama to make historic visit to Hiroshima

    By David Nakamura, Washington Post

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    President Obama will make a historic trip to Hiroshima, Japan, on May 27, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the world’s first atomic bombing.
    The White House formally announced the visit last week after weeks of speculation that Obama would stop in the city after attending the Group of 7 economic summit in Ise-Shima. The president is expected to deliver a speech on nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will join Obama on the visit, where the president will “highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” the White House said in a statement.
    Obama aides say there will be no presidential apology for the U.S. decision to drop the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, which killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima. Three days later, a second atomic bomb killed up to 80,000 people in Nagasaki.
    “He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II,” White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said in a blog post. “Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future.”
    Critics, including many conservative news outlets, have called a visit unnecessary and framed a potential trip by Obama as an apology for an act that helped bring the war started by Japan to a quicker end, saving lives of U.S. service members.
    But the White House believed the time was right, in Obama’s final year, to make a grand symbolic statement toward the president’s disarmament goals that he announced during his first year in office. Though Obama has made only modest progress in that effort, aides said the trip would allow the president to focus international attention on the issue at a time when presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has suggested Japan and South Korea develop their own nuclear weapon arsenals in the face of threats from North Korea.
    Rhodes emphasized that Obama will pay homage to U.S. service members who fought in World War II: “Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. ” He added that “the visit will also symbolize how far the United States and Japan have come in building a deep and abiding alliance based on mutual interests, shared values, and an enduring spirit of friendship between our peoples.”
    Kevin Martin, president of Peace Action, which advocates for the abolition of nuclear weapons, said that Obama must take concrete steps toward that goal.”It’s not enough to repeat the words Obama has said several times since his historic Prague speech [in 2009] calling for the abolishment of nuclear weapons,” Martin said. “Obama must announce actions he will take in the his remaining months as president that will actually bring the world closer to being free of nuclear weapons.”
    The president, Martin said, “will look insincere if his words espouse ridding the world of nuclear weapons while at the same time his administration continues its plan to spend a trillion dollars over thirty years to upgrade nuclear weapons.”
    Obama also will make his first visit to Vietnam, visiting Hanoi on May 24 and Ho Chi Minh City on May 25, the White House said.