It'sGreg
temple bell
In 1959 Yamanashi prefecture in Japan suffered a pair of devastating typhoons. Homes and farmlands were destroyed, livestock and crops were lost. An Iowan serving in the military and stationed in Japan contacted the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and suggested the people of his home state would probably be willing to offer help. And they did.
The practical people of Iowa organized a "hog lift." They offered to supply breeding hogs and tens of thousands of bushels of feed corn to restart farming operations in Yamanashi. The Air Force agreed to fly the hogs and grain to Japan--a much more difficult task than you'd think. There were no long-distance jet cargo aircraft in 1959. The animals were loaded on propeller airplanes, placed in crates specially built by the Air Force and island-hopped their way to Japan. An Iowa farmer and his wife accompanied the hogs, bathing them down at each stop so they wouldn't overheat.
Those hogs formed the core of a new breeding program in Yamanashi. A decade later, more than half a million hogs in Japan came from that breeding stock. It's now estimated that most of the pork produced in Japan has a genetic link to those island-hopping Iowa swine.
In 1962, the grateful and thoughtful people of Yamanashi cast a one ton bell and hand-crafted a small temple to house it. They sent the bell and temple, along with a team of craftsmen, to Iowa. It now stands on the grounds of the state capitol building. On special occasions--including the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima--the ceremonial log used to strike the bell is attached, and the bell is rung.
temple bell
In 1959 Yamanashi prefecture in Japan suffered a pair of devastating typhoons. Homes and farmlands were destroyed, livestock and crops were lost. An Iowan serving in the military and stationed in Japan contacted the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and suggested the people of his home state would probably be willing to offer help. And they did.
The practical people of Iowa organized a "hog lift." They offered to supply breeding hogs and tens of thousands of bushels of feed corn to restart farming operations in Yamanashi. The Air Force agreed to fly the hogs and grain to Japan--a much more difficult task than you'd think. There were no long-distance jet cargo aircraft in 1959. The animals were loaded on propeller airplanes, placed in crates specially built by the Air Force and island-hopped their way to Japan. An Iowa farmer and his wife accompanied the hogs, bathing them down at each stop so they wouldn't overheat.
Those hogs formed the core of a new breeding program in Yamanashi. A decade later, more than half a million hogs in Japan came from that breeding stock. It's now estimated that most of the pork produced in Japan has a genetic link to those island-hopping Iowa swine.
In 1962, the grateful and thoughtful people of Yamanashi cast a one ton bell and hand-crafted a small temple to house it. They sent the bell and temple, along with a team of craftsmen, to Iowa. It now stands on the grounds of the state capitol building. On special occasions--including the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima--the ceremonial log used to strike the bell is attached, and the bell is rung.