The History of Iowa’s “Bell of Peace and Friendship”
The Famous “Hog Lift”
In 1959, Yamanashi prefecture in Japan suffered two terrible typhoons in less than a month, devastating much of Yamanashi agriculture. Master Sergeant Richard Thomas, who was from Iowa, was working in public relations for the U.S. Air Force in Tokyo. When Thomas heard about the heavy damage to the livestock industry in Yamanashi prefecture, he thought about sending Iowa hogs as an opportunity to help revive the industry. He took his plan to Don Motz, the U.S. agricultural attaché at the Embassy in Tokyo, who was excited about the project and began working on its logistics. The idea of a “hog lift” received enthusiastic support from Walter Goeppinger, President of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), who was trying to get the U.S. Grains Council launched. Raymond Ioanes, the Administrator of FAS, agreed to help, as did the Japanese agricultural attaché in Washington.
Roscoe Marsden, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, rounded up 36 lean meat breeding hogs donated by Iowa farmers. He selected seven purebred sows and two boars from each of the four lean-meat breeds. The U.S. Air Force agreed to supply a plane to fly the hogs to Japan and USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation donated 60,000 bushels of number one grade corn to be used for feed. The hogs were sent by truck to the state capital of Des Moines and many people came to see them herded on board a large U.S. Air Force plane.
As the U.S. Grains Council’s 40th anniversary publication tells it, getting the hogs to Japan was no easy task. “The animals were shipped on an Air Force cargo plane fitted with special crates. Accompanying the hogs were Roscoe Marsden, his wife Kay, and NCGA director Albert Miller. Because there were no jet cargo planes at the time, the hogs and their escorts were forced to take a time-consuming, treacherous, island-hopping flight across the Pacific. At each stop, Miller and Marsden would bathe the hogs so that the animals wouldn’t overheat. The hogs arrived safely in Yamanashi, where they lived out their lives in new facilities and populated the prefecture with their descendants. Officials estimated that by the time the last of the original Iowa hogs died nine years later, their progeny totaled some 500,000 feed grain-guzzling animals.”
Following the hog lift, Yamanashi prefecture and the rest of Japan began to develop a modern hog industry. Today, most of the pork that is raised in Japan has a genetic connection to Iowa as a result of the 1959 hog lift, and Japan is also the largest U.S. export market for feed grains.
The “Bell of Peace and Friendship”
Yamanashi sought to respond to this act of kindness, but struggled to find an appropriate gift for Iowa. Finally, after several months of discussion, an official in the Yamanashi Prefectural Government proposed the wonderful idea of presenting Iowa with a Japanese hanging bell to symbolize peace and friendship. Japanese believe that bells bring good luck and prosperity and a bell’s religious association with prayer places a particular emphasis on sincerity and intimacy. In 1954, Japan gave the United Nations in New York a “Peace Bell” that represents the aspiration for peace not only of the Japanese but the world, symbolized by the United Nations. In 1960, the city of San Diego received a “Friendship Bell” from Yokohama, her sister city in Japan. The Japan-America Peace Treaty had also just been finalized in 1960.
Takaoka City, located in Toyama Prefecture, is well known for its bell casting industry and it was here that Yamanashi chose to find a bell. After receiving a sample catalogue from Oiogo Bell Works with a long list of clientele, often consisting of temples, Yamanashi officials ordered the creation of the “Bell of Peace and Friendship.” Because the bell would be sent abroad, much care had to be taken throughout the casting process. The finished product was delivered to Yamanashi within a month and the results were magnificent, both in sound and appearance. The layout of the bell’s surface was divided into four sections. The front section displayed a dedication written by the Yamanashi Governor, presenting the “Bell of Peace and Friendship” to the people of Iowa. On the left side of the bell was a friendship note, and on the right side were the English translations of the two messages. The remaining section was the images of Mt. Fuji and the Fuji Five Lakes.
Not wanting to present a bell without a structure to house it, various different types of structures were considered. The cost to build an elaborate structure, however, would have been considerable, and by the early 1960s craftsmen and technical specialists were few and far between. Yamanashi finally commissioned a local industrial company to build a structure based on a simple, yet elegant architectural design. Upon completion in 1962, the bell house was disassembled in preparation for shipping. The bell and its surrounding structure, including English assembly instructions, were then transported by truck to the U.S. military base in Yokosuka. After the presentation ceremony, which was attended by the commander of the Seventh Fleet, the “Bell of Peace and Friendship” was shipped to the west coast of the United States by a U.S. Navy vessel and then transported to Des Moines. Today, the 2,000-pound “Bell of Peace and Friendship” is located just west of the Iowa Judicial Building on the south side of Court Avenue, on the State Capitol grounds in Des Moines, Iowa.
For almost 50 years, the bell has symbolized the friendship and goodwill between the people of Iowa and Yamanashi. However, the “Bell of Peace and Friendship” is in need of restoration. A fund raising campaign is being planned to repair the wooden structure that houses the bell and to attractively landscape the area surrounding the bell, recreating a Japanese garden. We also would like to add a plaque with an inscription to tell of the generous gift from the people of Yamanashi to the people of Iowa. This campaign will include a modest endowment fund to ensure the bell structure is maintained in the future and can be enjoyed by all.
Iowa Sister States organization is spearheading the fundraising drive. If you are interested in more information about supporting the restoration of the Bell of Peace and Friendship, please call Carol Grant at 515-725-3163 or email at Carol.Grant@IowaLifeChanging.com