In December 2022 a new manga was published by Eostre Publications of Tallinn, Estonia called Mamiya’s Maps: A Samurai Explores Sakhalin written by Sean Michael Wilson with illustrations by Akiko Shimojima. I was contacted by email during the pandemic by the author who had found a photo online of me taken in 2003 at the Mamiya Rinzo Memorial Hall in Ibaraki Prefecture. I was surprised to hear that he wanted to use the photo for an illustration in the manga and having seen a number of his many graphic history books including eight with the illustrator Akiko Shimojima I felt honored to be included on what became page 96 with the caption “Here we see American visitor Jim Mockford, meeting 7th generation descendent Mamiya Masaki, in 2003.”
This book and many others by the author can be purchased on Amazon and I am working to get the book acquired by our local libraries for a reading in the future, so please stay tuned for more manga fun in the year ahead.
My first adventure in kite flying in China took place 30 years ago when I accompanied the American Kitefliers delegation to the 4th Annual Weifang International Kite Festival in 1987. Our group was led by the legendary David Checkley (1917-1988) of Seattle, a kite enthusiast extraordinaire, who had worked with the City of Weifang in the early 1980s to establish an international event at their annual national kite flying festival and competition. In early 2017 I began planning a trip to Dalian to see my son and daughter in law, Chris and Lynn Mockford who were expecting a baby boy in April. Noticing that the 2017 Weifang Kite Festival would be held April 15-17 I wrote to Mr. Liu Zhiping, Director Weifang International Kite Festival about the event and I was happily surprised to receive an invitation to join them as an “old and distinguished friend” 30 years after my first visit to Weifang.
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In 1987 I at 4th Annual Weifang International Kite Festival I had won the award “One of the Top Ten Kitefliers in the World” and along with a certificate I was presented a wonderful Chinese dragon kite trophy that I donated to the World Kite Museum in Long Beach, Washington. It was an appropriate home for the Weifang Kite because the museum contains the David Checkley Collection of Asian Kites that number over 700 kites from China, Japan, Thailand and other Asian countries that the Checkley’s donated to the museum initiating its establishment and making it a must see attraction at Long Beach Washington during the annual Washington State Kite Festival held annually in August as well as offering a variety of programs year round. The museum’s founding executive director Kay Buesing and her husband Jim were also members of our 1987 Kite flying delegation to China. Kay retired from the museum in the past year but continues to be involved and is known to Kitefliers around the world who attended the Washington State Kite Festival at Long Beach over the years. Therefore I carried a few simple World Kite Museum kites with me to fly in China and promote the museum that has the largest collection of Asian Kites and is a testimony to over 30 years of goodwill and friendship between China and the USA. See http://www.worldkitemuseum.com/ .
34th Weifang International Kite Festival Program Cover 2017
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As I was making arrangements to visit Weifang again Mr. Liu sent me another surprising invitation to come to China a week earlier and join him and other international kite delegates to the First Dunhuang International Kite Festival held April 8-9 in Gansu Province at the gateway to The Silk Road. We were enticed by the opportunity to visit the fabulous Mogao Caves and Singing Sand Mountain at Crescent Lake, an oasis in the midst of Sand Dunes as The Silk Road leaves Gansu Province for its long western journey across Xinjiang. So we moved our departure dates up in order to travel over 1,000 miles west from Beijing to Dunhuang and we got ready to fly our kites from the Silk Road to the sea!
See story in the Northwest China Council Newsletter
We began our road trip on March 29 from Portland to Texas to see the eclipse heading to Idaho and stopping for dinner in Pendleton and a night at Baker City before touring the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa and attending the annual Seven Arrows Powwow in Boise. The next leg of the trip stopped at Shoshone Falls and stops in Utah and a night at Evanston, Wyoming before proceeding to Dinosaur National Monument and then on to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Crossing the continental divide to Greeley we visited Aunt Barb and cousins before heading on to Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma where we enjoyed the Gathering Place in Tulsa. Finally, we made to our destination near Mt. Vernon Texas to our Airbnb house on Lake Bob Sandlin where seeing the eclipse in totality was the experience of lifetime.
Road Trip to Texas
Earth Day 2024 at Camp Westwind
Returning to Oregon from our 5,000+ mile, 12 state, two-week road trip, we went to Camp Westwind for Earth Day and flew our Octopus Kite on the beach.
Former First Lady of Japan Mrs. Mutsuko Miki attended the 1982 Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival with the Awa Odori Dancers from Prime Minister Miki’s home district of Tokushima, Japan. At the festival she met the world reknown opera star Atsuko Azuma who sang the Aria, “Un Bel Di” from the opera Madame Butterfly on the Seattle Center Stage as a preview of her performance at Seattle Opera. I was honored to introduce Madame Butterfly to Seattle Center Stage audience and Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival Queen Diane Katsumoto presented her with flowers. Program coves and excerpts below.
Later that year I visited Atsuko Azuma at her home at Machida City near Yokohama and met her husband who was a sculptor, and his work was installed on their patio. College friend Eiji Tamura joined us for a wonderful Italian lunch at her home.
The Ferry County View (November 2023) reported the story of the Rishiri Island High School exchange visit to Washington State in October 2023 coordinated by Friends of MacDonald and the Ferry County Historical Society with the support of Washington State Parks who manages the Ranald MacDonald Grave State Park at Toroda, Washington. In January 2024 Gates Ajar Vol. 36 No.1 Newsletter of Friends of MacDonald included an article about the 2023 Rishiri Island High School exchange program in Oregon and Washington.
As the past chairman of Friends of MacDonald (1998-2008) it was my pleasure to return to Toroda with my wife Cheryl who was the driver of our van from Portland to Spokane and on to Republic and Toroda. We had traveled a portion of this route in 2018 with an adult tour group of FOM members who had flown in and out of Spokane but this time we would make the entire journey from Portland to Spokane and then to Ferry County by car returning to Seattle with some interesting stops along the way.
Friends of MacDonald (FOM) was founded in 1988 in Astoria, Oregon the birthplace of Ranald MacDonald in 1824 and established a birthplace monument and a non-profit historical and friendship organization that promotes the story of Japan’s first teacher of English, Ranald MacDonald (1824-1894). MacDonald’s grave at Toroda is Washington State’s smallest state park and is a 10-foot by 10-foot area around his gravestone that lies in a private cemetery. Washington State Parks maintains the site that also has historical interpretive panels and a bench with a view of the local area where his last place of residence was located in log cabin that has fallen down on private property nearby. https://waparks.org/parks/ranald-mcdonalds-grave/
I had visited the grave site on occasions in the past and my wife and I joined the 2018 tour by FOM to celebrate the organization’s 30th anniversary at which time I also wrote an article for the Oregon Historical Society https://www.ohs.org/oregon-historical-quarterly/back-issues/fall-2018.cfm The 2023 trip was our first visit in five years.
We worked closely with the Ferry County Historical Society and Madilane Perry, president who helped arrange a homestay for our visitors at Curlew thanks to the generosity of Tom Amend and she arranged a dinner in Republic where Kanata Shima, a senior at Rishiri Island High School gave a presentation in English to members of the Ferry County Historical Society and Washington State Parks rangers and staff who also attended the visit to the Ranald MacDonald Grave State Park and hosted lunch there for us. Madilane wrote about the project in the Ferry County View before we arrived and the follow up report in November.
Multnomah Falls is a required scenic stop in the Columbia Gorge just east of Portland and from there were continued on to Spokane to visit the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture to see the featured exhibit Frank S. Matsura: Portraits from the Borderland that will be the subject of a documentary film “Our Mr. Matsura” to be released in 2024. In the early 1980s I was introduced to Joann Roe who in 1981 published the book, “Frank Matsura: Frontier Photographer” (Madrona Publishers) and she would go on to write 17 books and an estimated 600 magazine articles. In 1997 her book “Ranald MacDonald: Pacific Rim Adventurer” was published by the Washington State University Press. Joann was a member of Friends of MacDonald and joined us for events in Astoria as well as Washington State. Another author and longtime FOM Member in Spokane Atsumi Tsukimori joined us for dinner at Steamplant Restaurant. Atsumi is the author of the bilingual children’s book, “Unsung Hero Ranald Macdonald Story” that was illustrated by
At a Gala Dinner in Seattle on November 28, 2023, the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington celebrated its 100th anniversary as part of a year of centennial events. It was a fun-filled evening of meeting old friends and memories as a former executive director of the society and an honor to be a part of the event. Earlier in the year I was asked to present a video greeting shown here:
The 2023 dinner program held at the Westin Hotel featured Lori Matsukawa and Andrew McMasters as Masters of Ceremonies and congratulatory messages were received and read from President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Ambassador and Former Governor Gary Locke, Governor Jay Inslee, Former Consul General Hisao Inagaki, and newly arrived Consul General Makoto Iyori now serving at the Consulate General of Japan-Seattle. Appearing in beautiful kimono on stage were JASSW Chair Shoko Farmer and Centennial Gala Committe Chair Masami Katayama whose hard work with committee members and supporters made the event a great success. As guests arrived for the reception and mingled to music by Evergreen Glee Club, silent auction, and a collaborative performance by OKK Taiko and Seattle Kokon Taiko we brought a photo taken at the 1985 Holiday Dinner to hang on the Memory Tree.
Then then as dinner began with congratulatory remarks and kampai toast we enjoyed the music on stage by jazz vocalist Gail Pettis who for years has been an actively involved in the Seattle Kobe Sister City Association and jazz exchanges. Joining the event online was Jake Shimabukuro with ukulele and energy as his trademark. As Jake’s musical talent absorbed the audience I reflected on how I met Lori Matsukawa over 40 years ago in Portland before she began her remarkable career at King TV in Seattle. One of her early assignments in Seattle was a story about Harumi Harutani’s kayagum (Korean zither) music that was filmed in Seattle Japanese Garden and also featured percussionist Yoshitaka Terada, UW graduate student in ethnomusicology, who was the recipient of the 1982 Charles B. Howard Memorial Scholarship presented by the firm of LeGros, Buchanan, Paul and Whitehead.
Jim Mockford and Lori MatsukawaJim Mockford, Yoshitaka Terada, and Harumi Harutani
Lori is now retired after 36 years as Evening News Anchor at King TV in Seattle but busy as ever in the community. In 2019 she was one of few Americans to receive an invitation to attend the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito and in 2022, she received the award from the Japanese government “Order of the Rising Sun” for promotion of friendly relations between Japan and the USA.
Jim and Cheryl Mockford with Lori Matsukawa at Centennial Gala 2023
I attended an amazing concert by Jake Shimabukuro at Waikiki Shell in 2009 just after his return to Hawaii from a performance in England where he appeared at the Royal Variety Performance with Bette Midler and performed together playing the Beatles song “In My Life” and met Queen Elizabeth after the show. The audience in Honolulu gave him a royal welcome home in the warmest Aloha spirit. It was great to see Jake involved in the society’s 100th anniversary celebration.
Earlier in the year I was interviewed along with other former executive directors about the society for the centennial publication, “Building Bridges to the Next Century” that was presented to everyone at the event. I was delighted to share memories of the 1980s which appeared in this book.
We visited Japan in 1985 to attend the Tsukuba Science Expo where the giant Sony JumboTron Television could be seen over the site and as you approached it a camera caught visitors below and posted your photo on the Jumbotron screen. The tour also went to the top of the Jumbotron where we took a photo with my college friend Kojima-san who lived nearby and hosted our visit to his golf course lodge.
We helped another Seattle family with part of their visit to Japan on a slightly different schedule that culminated with a reception at the home of Prime Minister Miki who with his family had been exceptional friends to the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington, the Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival, and to us personally on several trips to Japan. When his daughter Kiseko Takahashi heard that Dr. Hubert Armstrong visited my office to discuss a possible Japan tour by his daughter “Debbie” the year after her Olympic Gold Medal winning performance in the giant slalom at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia she immediately offered to host a reception for the Armstrong family at their home in Tokyo. I took a few photos of the party at the Miki home, and we all had a great time that evening.
The Armstrongs had other meetings related to sports and skiing in Japan while we attended a friend’s wedding. A few days later while we were in Tokyo, we were invited to accompany Mr. Miki to an art exhibition of paintings by prominent persons where one of his oil paintings was featured and rode with him in his official car marked by Prime Minister’s seal to the event.
In 1987 I attended the 50th anniversary of Takeo Miki’s election to the Japanese Diet held at the National Diet Building and it was noted that he won re-elections 19 times over five decades of service. During WWII in the 1942 election, he openly voiced opposition to the military government under Hideki Tojo and was reelected by the voters of Tokushima. His advocacy for friendship with America prior to the war was derived from his first visit to the USA when he landed in Seattle in the 1930s and worked at Maneki Restaurant before traveling to California to attend college.
While I was a college student attending Waseda University in 1974 Takeo Miki was elected Prime Minister on December 9 after the political downfall of his predecessor Kakuei Tanaka due to corruption charges and the unexpected Prime Minister began the same year that Gerald Ford assumed the presidency on August 9 after the resignation of Richard Nixon. I arrived in Japan in late August relieved that the USA had settled its political crisis but unsure of how Japan was to solve the scandal in its leadership. Little did I know at the time that I was to meet the man who was elected Prime Minister that year less than 10 years later when I first met Prime Minister Mike in Tokyo in 1982 during a sister city tour and become involved in several projects in the 1980s in which he and his family supported cultural exchanges with Seattle. While he was Prime Minister, he gave Seattle 1,000 cherry trees to commemorate the United State Bicentennial in 1976 and this gift was celebrated by the creation of the Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival. In 1982 we hosted his wife Mrs. Mutsuko Mike and daughter Kiseko Takahashi and a troupe of dancers who performed the Awa Odori dance under the Space Needle and shared other cultural exchanges over the years. On the 30th Anniversary of the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival in 2006 I was presented a Commendation by the Japanese Consul General at the festival for my work in promoting US-Japan relations and the Emcee for the event was King TV News Anchor Lori Matsukawa. Another recipient of the Consul General’s commendation that year was David Yamaguchi who retired as Editor from the North American Post in 2023.
Prime Minister Takeo Miki passed away in November 1988 at the age of 81. As is customary for Japanese funeral observances an extended period of mourning is observed at the household where a photograph of the deceased is placed in the tokonoma or family altar in the home and visitors pay their respects upon visiting which I did during the month after his passing. His widow and former First Lady Mutsuko Miki lived until 2012 passing at the age of 95. She wrote a book about her life which she inscribed to me and a copy which I presented to my Japanese host mother as an appreciation for my homestay in 1974-75.
In 2023 the Northwest China Council participated in several programs and projects that remembered the Chinese immigrant to Milwaukie, Oregon who invented the Bing Cherry in the 1800s. The Milwaukie History Museum invited NWCC to partner in a historical program at the Ledding Library in October, assist in the development of historical interpretive panels, and share the story of the Bing Cherry via our China Business Network by Zoom in November. NWCC also wrote letters of support for the Milwaukie Arts Committee grant development efforts that resulted in funding for a Bing Cherry Sculpture and promotion of a New Year’s Eve “Bing in the New Year” public celebration in Milwaukie, Oregon. The NWCC fall newsletter ran a “Save the Date” column for the October 4 program.
Speakers in the photo from left: Jim Mockford, President Northwest China Council, David Kohl NWCC Board Member and Past President, Desi Nicodemus Milwaukie City Councilman, Greg Hemer Milwaukie History Museum, and Janet Lee NWCC Guest Speaker. The program was recorded by Willamette Falls Studios and is posted on the Milwaukie Heritage YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/UyK_IUNEdLg
The new Milwaukie City Hall opened to the public in October 2023 with a staircase of cherry mural art and historical text paintings to tell the horticultural history of their city. At the open house tour of the new city hall the mobile historical panels prepared by the Milwaukie History Museum were also displayed.
In November NWCC held a China Business Network program on Zoom featuring Keith Hu, Director of International Operations Northwest Cherry Growers who spoke on the current business of Cherry Exports to China including Bing Cherries. See NWCC YouTube Channel – link
And to bring the 2023 year of Bing Cherry history and art in Milwaukie, Oregon to a glowing year end celebration and send off to a bright future in 2024 the Milwaukie Arts Committee has announced the Bing Cherry Sculpture Debut and New Year Eve Cherry Ball Drop with a big Bing in the New Year event on December 31, 2023, at 9pm in Downtown Milwaukie, Oregon!
We visited the Wenatchee Valley Museum this fall to see the exhibit about Washington State’s great aviator Clyde Pangborn who with Hugh Herndon completed the first non-stop trans-Pacific flight from Sabishiro Beach, Japan to Wenatchee, Washington in 1931. The exhibit room shows “golden age of flight” with photos and memorabilia from the life of Clyde Pangborn. The American Aviators are remembered in the USA where Pangborn Memorial Airport is Wenatchee’s public airport, and a monument is located there to mark the site where the trans-Pacific flight landed at Wenatchee. The aviators are remembered at Misawa, Japan at the air museum which contains a replica of their famous airplane Miss Veedol.
Jim Mockford with Aviators Pangborn and Herndon at First Non-Stop Trans-Pacific Flight exhibit at Wenatchee Valley Museum in 2023.
In 1981 we attended the 50th Anniversary of the Flight of Miss Veedol and heard local citizens share the memories of having been there at the time of the historic landing. Cover images from the 50th Anniversary historical publication below.
I was hired as executive director of the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington in the summer of 1981 and my first tasks were to renew a grant application for funding from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, organize the annual golf tournament under the leadership of Golf Committee Chairman Tak Matsui, prepare for a fall schedule of public lectures, and purchase a gift to be presented to Prince Hitachi who was to visit Seattle on September 22. I found a beautiful carved and painted totem pole created by first peoples who sold their art at the Oceanic Trading Company that was presented to Prince Hitachi and Consul General Naoki Nakano also visited the shop with me to purchase a couple of totem poles that were displayed in the official residence of the Consul General for many years. The 50th Anniversary celebration of the First Transpacific Flight and dedication of the monument at Pangborn Airport on October 3-5, 1981was the first significant historical event that I participated in my new job and it was my privilege to give congratulatory greetings from the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington. I learned that at least one of the founding members of the Japan-America Society had been involved in Pangborn’s historic story. The pancake breakfast gave us the opportunity to meet people who had been present at the historic landing 50 years earlier and interviews were recorded with witnesses for posterity.
The Autumn 1981 newsletter of the Japan-America Society State of Washington was my first newsletter published after becoming executive director of the society and it carried the story shown below with the image of the special issue US Airmail post card that was issued for 28 cents!
As the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023 I remember the year 1983 when the Society of the State of Washington celebrated it’s 60th Anniversary with the theme of “Kanreki.” The word “Kanreki” meaning “return” (kan) and “calendar” (reki) is a special anniversary in Japan because the traditional Asian zodiac calendar has rotated through the five iterations that complete a full cycle and one is returned back to the original birth zodiac. When a person turns 60, they now begin a new cycle and in Japan this special event involves a special Kanreki celebration.
As Executive Director of the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington from 1981-1985 I was involved in planning for the Society’s 60th anniversary and in addition to special programs that year we decided to publish a history by hiring Mayumi Tsutakawa as writer and David Kageyama as graphic designer for a historical publication that was presented to members as part of the Kanreki celebration. The calligraphy on the cover was created by Tsuyoshi Korekiyo. Copies were distributed to members in 1983 and this historical publication is posted online at https://jassw.org/kanreki/
However, during 1983 as members continued to contribute old photos and documents after the Kanreki history was printed, I decided to write an article with some of this additional information and my essay, “The Japan-America Society: The Founding Years” shared this story in “Portage: Magazine of the Historical Society of Seattle and King County”, Vol. 4 #3 Summer 1983.
Portage Magazine Volume Four #3 Summer 1983Summer 1983 Newsletter of the Japan-Amerca Society
The Annual Meeting and Dinner Commencing the 60th Anniversary Year of the Society was held on March 18, 1983 at the Westin Hotel Grand Ballroom in Seattle. Entertainment during the reception featured the North Seattle String Quartet (Linda Nygrin – Violin, Tim Prior – Violin, Michael Watson – Viola, and Gary Anderson – Cello) with selections including “The Emperor Quartet” (Hayden), “Maple Leaf Rag” and “Pineapple Rag” (Joplin) and Folksongs from Japan transcribed for string by Linda Nygrin included “Seki no Gohon-Matsu”, “Soran-Bushi” and “Itsuki no Komori-uta.” A display of the “Society in History in Photographs” was arranged from collections of Society corporate and individual members and the University of Washington Archives, Port of Seattle, and Seattle Art Museum.
The Keynote Address by Governor John Spellman was given on “The Future of Washington State Relations with Japan” after President Wil Pascoe’s Welcome, Consul General Toshio Isogai’s Message and a Recognition of Charter Members was made including the attendance of Charter Member Ashley Holden. The commencement of the 60th Anniversary Year was celebrated with the sounds of the Sakurakai Chorus conducted by Keiko Sekiguchi and accompanied on piano by Kikuko Kawanami and presented by the Shinju Club. A presentation of scholarships by Henry Trubner was made and then the Election and Installation of Officers conducted by David Enroth. Copies of Kanreki: The 60th Anniversary History of the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington were made availabe fot everyone attending and presented in the Grand Foyer upon departure.
From Left: Robert LaGuardia, David Enroth, Richard Buchanan, Mayor Charles Royer, Consul General Toshio Isogai, Governor John Spellman, Ashley Holden, Wil Pascoe, Jim Mockford
As we worked during the year preceding the event to learn the early history of the society we found that one of the Society’s original officers from 1923 Secretary Ashley Holden was alive and able to attend the program. Mayumi Tsutakawa, author of the Society’s Kanreki history interviewed Ashley Holden in 1983 and we recorded it by cassette tape that was transferred to MP3 here. Here is the voice of a 1923 founding member speaking on US-Japan relations, immigration and trade, animosity and exclusion, and thoughts on his experiences from 1923 in Seattle and in Japan during the decade that the Japan-America Society began its work to promote relations between the United States and Japan.
Ashley Holden seated at far left facing the camera with glasses at the banquet
The photograph above showing Ashley Holden seated at far left facing the camera in glasses at the Japan-America Society banquet was used for the 100th Anniversary celebration image below in 2023.
In January 2023 the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington kicked off the 100th anniversary year at its “Shinnenkai” reception held at Russell Investments in Seattle at which time I presented JASSW President Shoko Farmer with the 1983 Kanreki medallion we coined for special presentations made during the 1983 celebration.
Presentation of Kanreki CoinJim Mockford and Shoko FarmerConsul General Inagaki
This lecture was found on a cassette tape in my collection over 40 years after the program sponsored by the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington and co-sponsored by the Washington Council International Trade held the luncheon with Dr. Ezra Vogle April 2, 1982. Dr. George Taylor, founding president of the Washington Council on International Trade introduces Dr. Vogle after the head table is introduced. Head Table guests included: Dr. George Taylor President WCIT (1905-2000), Roger Christiansen, George Weyerhaeuser (1927-2022), Dr. Ezra Vogel (1930-2020), Wilfred Pascoe, President Japan-America Society of the State of Washington (1913-2004), Dr. Brewster Denny University of Washington (1924-2013), Consul General Naoki Nakano, Don Marsh (1930-2016), Alan Moses, The Richardson Associates (TRA) (1930-2019), M. Keith Ellis Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Here is a very rough selected segment from the original audio tape. A longer composite mp3 may be made available at a later date (Many thanks to Lynn Moyers for his assistance with saving the old cassette tape recording).
The Japan-America Society of the State of Washington was one of many societies in the USA that sponsored talks by Dr. Vogel after his book, Japan as Number One: Lessons for America was published in 1979 and the following year sold nearly half a million copies of the Japanese translation making it the all-time best-seller in Japan of non-fiction by a Western author. It continued to be a top seller and conversation leader in connection with the economic success of Japan in the early 1980s.
mockford 