姉妹都市提携と市民國際交流の意義

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 성결대학교 다문화평화연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 다문화와 평화 / 3권 / 2호 / 51 ~ 81페이지
· 저자명 : Toshio Kusumoto

초록

The foundation of international cultural exchange in our county
is sister city agreements, which are signed between local
municipalities and foreign cities.
In 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the US President, proposed
“People to People Program” to promote international cultural
exchanges between cities in the US and around the world. The
basic philosophy behind the program was that the international
cultural exchange among citizens concerned would promote
mutual understanding; concomitantly it would promote world
peace. One of the most important scheme in President
Eisenhower’s program was to develop sister city agreements
among foreign municipalities. Today, the same philosophy still
stands. Different from diplomatic activities between governments,
which are directly affected by national interests, sister city
agreements are less affected by foreign policies. To the contrary,
sister city agreements often promote more grass-root cultural
exchanges between cities and citizens.
In Japan, before the end of world war Ⅱ, it was quiteunusual
for a local municipality to sign a sister city agreement with a
foreign city. The first sister city agreement signed by a Japanese
city was between Nagasaki and St. Paul. Minnesota, in 1955.
Japan in 1955 was still a devastated and confused country after
being defeated in the war. Strict government regulations on
foreign currency limited the ability to travel abroad for the
average citizen; however, for the heads of municipalities and
citizen this sister city agreement provided a rare opportunity to
experience the outside world.
The international cultural exchange between sister cities covers
various aspects of societies, such as education, high culture,
sports, health care, industry and administration. Through sister
city agreements, a city can expect an increased number of
opportunities for the international cultural exchange of citizens.
The expectations for world peace were high when the cold war
ended after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, such
optimistic expectations have been proved to be only an illusion.
Confrontations provoked by racial, religious or national interests,
which lead to confusion and dispute, are often observed today. In
such chaotic situations, mutual understanding and cooperation
between individual citizens, which differ from inter governmental
diplomatic relationships, should have even more important
significance. Through a sister city agreement, two cities and their
citizens interact with each other to create close friendship and a
sense of solidarity. Thus, sister city agreements may contribute to
world peace through a grass-root cultural exchange of citizens.
In 1974, Kobe and Riga, the capital of the Latvian Republic,
signed a sister city agreement. While under control of the Soviet
Union, its citizens were strictly prohibited from making free
contact or having exchanges with foreigners. However the sister
city agreement has provided citizens of Riga, who were not
ordinarily allowed to travel to western countries, the opportunity
to visit Kobe. After Latvia obtained independence from the
Soviet Union in 1990, one Riga citizen looked back and
commented; “Before 1990, it was impossible to make a free
contact with foreign countries for the people of Latvia. The sister
city, Kobe, provided the only window, through which people of
Latvia could glance at the western world”.
When the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake hit Kobe in 1995,
many countries kindly forwarded necessary aids to the hard-hit
city. The aids items from sister cities were the most needed in
the city at that time. The reason sister cities could provide
appropriate aid items was the strong ties between the cities. The
strong ties established before the earthquake made communication
easy so that information on what were the urgent necessities
could be easily communicated.
This paper studies the history and the present situation of
international cultural exchange of sister cities, the present
situation of the sister city agreement between Japan and Korea,
and the significance and the tasks of sister city agreements.

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