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Longmont Sister Cities commemorates 75 years of peace with Japan

Longmont was one of 50 Sister Cities to participate in the event.

Longmont’s Dai Kato wants the international bond between his adopted city and his native Japan to grow and thrive. The result could ensure a lasting peace between the two lands.

“I want to bring up this program so people can deal with each other on a one-on-one basis,” said Kato, as his 5 ½-year-old son Kensho tugged at his arm. “In that way, we can avoid conflict and any war. The Japanese people want that. We learned war does not work. We want peace.”

Kato, who moved to Longmont a year ago, was among 15 people who gathered at Kanemoto Park in Longmont Saturday night to mark the 30th anniversary of Longmont becoming a Sister City with Chino, Japan. The group also commemorated the 75th anniversary of peace between the United States and Japan since the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Longmont Sister Cities contingent gathered in front of the Tower of Compassion at Kanemoto Park for a moment of silence and then rang bells at 8:02 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time, the moment the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

Similar ceremonies were held Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 5:15 p.m. MDT to mark the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

The two bombs killed a combined 200,000 people and effectively ended World War II.

Longmont was among 50 Sister Cities that participated in the bell ringing ceremony in the United States and Japan.

The Sister Cities program was started to help ensure peace between the United States and Japan and to begin a cultural exchange program between the two countries, said Courtney Michelle, the vice president of Longmont Sister Cities.

Chino was picked as Longmont’s sister city in 1990 because it shares similar characteristics, including an agricultural background while still evolving into a technological hub.

The two cities have exchanged students since the 1990s, encouraging cultural understanding, MIchelle said.

“Hundreds of thousands of students have been exchanged and I think it’s helped create citizens of the world among the students,” Michelle said.

This year’s exchange was cancelled because COVID-19. Exchanges between Longmont’s other sister cities - Ciudad Guzman in Mexico and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming - have also been scuttled because of the virus, she said.

“COVID-19 has taken its toll,” Michelle said.

Longmont became a pioneer in the sister city movement with Japan because of its strong Japanese heritage, she said. Several Japanese families moved to Longmont in the early 1900’s to begin fruit and vegetable farms.

Jimmie Kanemoto, who died in 2006, was a member of one of those families and played a huge role in Longmont’s sister cities push, Michelle said.

“The whole sister cities effort probably wouldn’t have started without Jimmie Kanemoto and others like him,” she said.