Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, second from left, and other members of a Maui delegation attend a meeting at the Fukushima Prefecture Government Office on Tuesday.
5:00 PM JST, May 22, 2024
FUKUSHIMA – A delegation from Maui, which was devastated by forest fires in August, visited Fukushima Prefecture as part of a project to learn from the prefecture’s earthquake-hit areas to help the island recover.
About two dozen people, including Maui Mayor Richard Bissen and state Rep. Troy Hashimoto, visited the prefecture government office and met with Governor Masao Uchibori on Tuesday.
They arrived in Japan on Sunday and visited a university and hospital in Miyagi Prefecture and a hydrogen production facility in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture.
During the meeting, Uchibori quoted the late bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi, from the city of Inawashiro in the prefecture: “There are two things we can change in this world. One is you, the other is your future.”
Handing over an “okiagari-koboshi” roly-poly toy – a Fukushima folk art work that returns to an upright position if knocked over – Uchibori said: “We can change our future into a better one if we continue to make efforts. Let’s do our best.”
Bissen said he felt deeply the efforts of people affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and is determined to take what they learned and apply it to the recovery of Maui.
The project was organized by the Tokyo-based US-Japan Council and commissioned by the Ministry of State.
