In this January 2019 photo, Japanese middle school student Miyuki Miyamoto, left, and other Japanese students look at gifts they received at Custer Baker Intermediate School during a visit. Miyamoto was part of a group of Japanese students and educators from Kuji, Japan visiting Franklin.
DAILY JOURNAL FILE PHOTO
Kuji Alley across the Johnson County Courthouse in Franklin displays a vibrant mural of koi with patterns of orange, black, white and yellow on a red background.
The fish are a symbolic reminder of a sister city partnership between Franklin, Indiana, and Kuji, Japan, that became official in 1961.
The partnership, however, has become physically distant, even as leaders have kept in touch via holiday cards, emails and videos. In the fall of 2020, a group of students at Franklin Community High School were set to embark on a trip to the northern Japanese city for the first time since 2015. When the COVID-19 pandemic set in, however, it not only put that trip on hold indefinitely, but halted an annual tradition of students from Japan visiting Franklin.
Now, even as many parts of the world have reopened to tourists and students alike, Kuji and Franklin officials have been unable to complete plans for the next visit. Franklin school board members will vote next month on a trip planned to send students to Switzerland to visit Endress+Hauser headquarters
Still, the trip to Japan is a top priority, said David Clendening, superintendent.
“I think it’s a great cultural experience when our kids can go over and spend seven to 10 days with their peers and go to school and see what it’s like at their school and in everyday life, to experience food, customs, shopping and language. All of these are benefits as we get kids ready for the future,” Clendening said. “(Japan) was a great experience for the kids. They made friends, and social media has allowed kids to stay connected even though they can’t travel back and forth.”
Greg Moore, a member of the mayor’s committee for the Kuji sister city relationship, has seen the value of the partnership first hand. Moore’s wife, Tamayo Fukomoto, is Japanese, and the two used to live in Japan. In years prior, they have helped organize trips of Japanese students visiting Franklin, including their stays with host families in Franklin.
“It fosters friendship and learning growth for the kids. They can learn how much we are alike in this world and different in a fun way, too. I always hope these types of exchanges make the world a friendlier place and encourage our students to travel abroad themselves,” Moore said.
Though organizers in both the United States and Japan see the value in the relationship, it has been stymied by the ongoing global pandemic.
“The real difficulty is Japan’s very restrictive COVID policies,” Moore said. “They are not allowing anyone in without a Japanese passport. There are exceptions, this could be an exception, but they are a very conservative country in that regard. There are hoops and hurdles to go through and to send a group over there is really tough.”
On Sept. 23, some of those hurdles were removed as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced tourists would be welcomed startingOct. 11, not just those traveling with authorized groups. While the announcement is encouraging, the decision to send and host students still has to be a mutual one between Franklin and Kuji officials, Clendening said in an email.
Moore said he was excited about the news.
While there is a possibility of students from Japan visiting Franklin, they likely don’t want to risk bringing COVID back to their home country. The Kuji delegation has already announced it won’t be visiting this January, Moore said.
The partnership between Franklin and Kuji started in 1911, when Franklin College graduate Thomasine Allen went to Japan as a missionary and founded the Kuji Christian Center, Franklin College President Kerry Prather said in an email.
“The relationship between Franklin and Kuji has, from the beginning, been rooted in a shared commitment to education and friendship,” Prather said. “For many years, Franklin College graduates have had the opportunity to travel to Kuji and work, learn and teach in our sister city through a program made possible by the Kuji mayor’s office. We are grateful for this longstanding community friendship and the special role Franklin College has played since its inception. We look forward to many more years of partnering with our friends in Kuji.”
Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett, who first joined the city as part of the town council in 2008, has been heavily involved with the partnership, welcoming Japanese students every January until 2020, the last year students visited. That year, they stopped by not only Franklin schools, but also the Johnson County courthouse, the Historic Artcraft Theatre, the Garment Factory and City Hall.
They’ve also visited other American cities during their trips to visit Franklin, such as Chicago, Indianapolis, New York and Washington D.C., Barnett said.
“To be able to meet and talk with other individuals with different cultures and just having a good time (is my favorite aspect). They’ll have chaperones for the kids and we’ll entertain them and exchange gifts. We go out to dinner and learn about their culture and they’ll learn about our culture,” Barnett said. “It’s been a great learning experience for myself. We have a good time when the chaperones get together. It’s good for our city to have somewhere like Kuji that wants to be an active sister city.”
In order to maintain the active relationship, the two cities exchanged videos earlier this year, each showing a day in the lives of some of their students. Additionally, Franklin officials have plans to enhance Kuji Alley for the next time Japanese students visit, but the details of those enhancements haven’t been finalized, said Tara Payne, the city of Franklin’s chief of staff.
“We were all planned to go (to Kuji) and then COVID hit and we weren’t able to so both cities, Kuji and Franklin, were devastated,” Payne said.
