On 29 September, our Director, Mr Katsunori Kamibo, visited Father Paul Glynn at the Church of the Holy Name of Mary, Hunters Hill with the Consul-General of Japan in Sydney, Mr Keizo Takewaka. In 1963, while the wounds and hatred of WW2 still remained, Father Glynn who at that time was serving in Yamatotakada, Nara, devoted himself to linking Yamatotakada and his hometown, Lismore, NSW together to form the first Australia-Japan sister city relationship.
We heard that he strived to strengthen the relationship under the belief that the ultimate goal of sister city relationships is to achieve world peace. During our visit, we also talked about Japanese culture and history, such as Manyo-shu (the first Japanese poetry collection) that featured many female poets, much earlier than the West. Overall, the visit was very fruitful and interesting.
We now have 108 sister city relationships between our two countries. Learning about Father Glynn’s efforts, we would like to strengthen these relationships even more.