San Bernardino launches disaster relief effort with Japanese sister city Tachikawa

San Bernardino has launched a relief effort for victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The city’s maintained ties to Japan for more than half a century.

That’s when San Bernardino established a sister-city pact with Tachikawa, a city just west of Tokyo.

“We started in 1959, exchanging oranges,” says Judy McClusky. McClusky is with the Tachikawa-San Bernardino Sister City Committee.

She says the city wasn’t damaged in the magnitude 9 earthquake, although it continues to rumble with aftershocks. “Their air force base, one of the major disaster preparedness centers.”

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That’s the Tachikawa National Disaster Preparedness Base – a former U.S. air base, now a major trauma care center. The money McClusky’s committee raises will go there. “And this is what we’re raising our money for, to help them get their supplies.”

Think of it as returning a favor. Tachikawa sent San Bernardino help seven years ago after the massive Old Fire destroyed scores of homes and killed six people. “Twenty-thousand dollars to help our fire victims. Their committee over there would stand at the train station and ask for money for the fire victims of San Bernardino.”

McClusky says the committee still plans to send four San Bernardino high school exchange students to Tachikawa this summer. She hopes her Japanese sister city will be able to do the same.