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Monroe Rotary members can take pride in the City of Monroe’s celebration for the 25th Anniversary of the Sister City connection with Hofu, Japan that took place this past weekend when a delegation of 35 Hofu officials and residents visited Monroe. Our Rotary Club played a front and center role starting more than a quarter of a century ago when the friendship between those two cities started to take shape.
Here’s how it happened:
In the late 1980s Delta Kogyo Company, a long-time seat manufacturer for Mazda vehicles, picked our community to locate a U.S. factory (Delta USA on Detroit Ave.) to service what was then a new Mazda Motor Manufacturing plant in Flat Rock. That plant later became known as AutoAlliance International (AAI) when Ford Motor joined the Mazda operation, and now is a Ford assembly plant.
Delta’s decision brought Japanese people to our community and one thing led to another. The late Don Johnson of Johnson Architects and a former Monroe Rotarian, was appointed by Monroe City to lead a committee to study the idea of a Sister City project with Hofu.
Then Dr. Yoshikazu Minamisono, still to this day a member of the Hofu Rotary Club who eventually served on Rotary International Board of Directors in 2004-2006, started to make several visits to Monroe, bringing other Rotarians with him and meeting with Monroe Rotarians and other local people to promote the idea of a friendship connection. At the same time, Hitoshi Fujita, a member of the family that owns Delta Kogyo who was Vice President and General Manager of the Monroe factory, became a Monroe Rotarian. Mr. Fujita now is President of the parent company, Delta Kogyo.
Two-time Past President Don Lieto and other veteran members of our club recall Dr. Minamisono visiting our club and knowing Hitoshi when he was in Monroe. Several other Rotarians have been involved in the program. Dave and Sue Mehregan have been very active in hosting students from Hofu who were here as part of the Student Exchange program. Marge and Roger Kreps visited Hofu with me as part of a Monroe delegation.
Yours truly was President of the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce back in the 1980s-90s and, with outstanding support of Delta Kogyo and the Fujita family, spearheaded development of the Sister City with Hofu, including the exchange of 3 friendship dolls from Monroe and 2 from Hofu. The Student Exchange Program, led here by the Monroe International Friendship Association, has allowed more than 200 students from the two communities to experience life in vastly diverse cultural countries. I fondly remember meeting with Dr. Minamisono into the wee hours of several mornings trying to iron out the details of the student exchange which has become the Sister City signing ceremonies took place in Japan in May 1993 and then in Monroe in August of the same year.
I’ve been to the Japanese city, located in the Yamaguchi Prefecture about 70 miles from Hiroshima where Delta has its world headquarters, close to 10 times. My involvement in the Monroe-Hofu connection has provided me dozens of wonderful friends in Hofu. In fact, thanks also to my job with Diamond Electric Manufacturing Corp. of Osaka, Japan, many of my best friends are a half-a-world away from Monroe.
Needless to say, any project such as this Sister City that evolves from a dream and continues for more than 25 years requires the involvement of many, many people. Yours truly can confess there’s a lot of pride and satisfaction that he had the chance to be front and center to making it happen. And then be able to watch over the years how our citizens have benefited from it.