JAPANESE SISTER CITIES IN NH: NICHINAN AND NIHONMATSU
Sister Cities: Portsmouth NH and Nichinan, Japan
New Hampshire has two Sister City relationships with Japan: Portsmouth and Nichinan; and Hanover and Nihonmatsu. Both are directly connected because of Treaty history. Baron Komura, the lead Japanese diplomat at the peace conference in Portsmouth, was born in Nichinan. Kan’ichi Asakawa, a young history scholar at Dartmouth College, whowrote the first history of the causes of the Russo-Japanese War and came to Portsmouth to observe the peace conference, was from Nihonmatsu.
In 1985, on the 80th anniversary of the Treaty, the Mayor of Nichinan reached out to Portsmouth Mayor Mary Keenan to suggest a formal Sister City bond to strengthen the friendship begun in 1905. In 1986 a delegation of 21 Portsmouth citizens – including Eileen Foley who would become the city’s Ambassador to Nichinan -- traveled to Japan to ratify the formal agreement with the Mayor of Nichinan.
2009: In 2009, 19 students from the Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School, their teacher and their superintendent visited Portsmouth High School.
2010: In 2010 members of the Portsmouth High School Madrigal Singers visited Nichinan.and on Sunday, October 3, 2010, twenty students and four teachers from Nichinan Gakuen Junior High School accompanied their Director General Masakuni Soeda and Vice Principal Masaki Kawagoe to Portsmouth. The students stayed with Portsmouth families for four days, reciprocating the visit to Nichinan in August 2010 by members of the Portsmouth High School Madrigal Singers. Accompanying the students for the start of the trip were Nichinan Deputy Mayor Katuhisa Sakamoto, the Chairman of the Nichinan Chamber of Commerce & Industry Mithuo Shimizu and the Nichinan General Affairs Section Manager Masahiro Murasumi. They first visited the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit at the Portsmouth Historical Society museum where they were greeted by a member of the Japan-America Society of NH. They then were welcomed by the Mayor of Portsmouth, Tom Ferrini and the Superintendent of Portsmouth Schools, Ed McDonough, with Assistant Superintendent Steven Zadravec at Wentworth By the Sea Hotel. NH Senator Martha Fuller Clark, sponsor of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day bill in the NH Legislature (who also participated in the Portsmouth-Nichinan Sister School program at its start), former Mayor Eileen Foley and a representative of the Japan-America Society of NH (who presented the Nichinan visitors with copies of the Governor's Proclamation of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day) also participated. Bill co-sponsor Representative Robin Read also attended. The students spent four days visiting Portsmouth High School and staying with local families.
2011: The Japan-America Society of NH took the lead on the Nichinan, Japan Sister City visit and homestay student exchange in October 2011 by 17 students and 4 teachers from the Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School. In addition, 15 adults including the Deputy Mayor of Nichinan traveled to Portsmouth at the same time to honor the 100th anniversary of the death of Baron Komura. JASNH worked with the schools and the City of Portsmouth to organize a welcoming ceremony at City Hall, a luncheon at Wentworth By the Sea and tours of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit (left) and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The school hosted an evening American Supper for the guests with the homestay program families.
2013: The City of Nichinan funded the planting of the original cherry trees around South Mill Pond in Portsmouth. Students from Nichinan have helped plant and dedicate new trees, descended from the Washington originals, as have students from Nihonmatsu. In 2013, Portsmouth High School Students and students visiting from Nichinan participated in a ceremonial cherry tree planting at Portsmouth High School.
2014: Visiting Sister City exchange students from the Nichinan Gakuen Jr-Sr High School in Nichinan, Japan placed a granite plaque for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial cherry trees on the banks of South Mill Pond, opposite the Portsmouth Middle School. In May 2014, Portsmouth Middle School's Student Council members planted cherry trees on the banks of the South Mill Pond where cherry trees given to Portsmouth by Sister City Nichinan have bloomed since 1985. Four Portsmouth High School students and their teachers visited Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School in Portsmouth’s Sister City of Nichinan, Japan as part of an ongoing mutual exchange program between the two schools. At the same time, the US and Foreign Ministry of Japan released a statement resulting from the summit on April 24 between the two countries’ leaders, expressing the intent to double student exchanges between the US and Japan. The Portsmouth High School delegation now in Japan includes students: James Saxe, Brenta Abbey, Madeline Dinino and Izzy Halle; and teachers: Patrick Ganz and Kyle Harrison. "Everyone agrees that the exchange program with Nichinan is an extraordinary opportunity for the students who participate," said Portsmouth High School Principal Jeff Collins. "It can be a life-changing experience to share another culture and to be the host for international visitors. Understanding the special history Portsmouth shares with Nichinan magnifies the impact."
According to the joint US-Japan statement, “Broad people-to-people exchange between Japan and the United States has been a key pillar of our Alliance since its inception. Close ties and shared values between the people of the United States and the people of Japan form the foundation of the global partnership between our nations. To ensure the future strength of the U.S.-Japan relationship, the two governments share the goal, established by the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), of doubling two-way student exchange by the year 2020. Recognizing that people-to-people exchange is an irreplaceable investment in the future of the Alliance, President Obama and Prime Minister Abe announced their intent to create a new bilateral exchange program that would enable Japanese youth to visit the United States, enhance their English language abilities, and develop professional skills through internship opportunities. The leaders also intend to explore internship opportunities for U.S. youth in Japan.” The announcement credited both binational government programs such as Fulbright scholarships and the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program as well as non-governmental (NGO) initiatives between Sister Cities.
In a follow-up statement the US-Japan Conference of Cultural and Education Interchange (CULCON) noted, “Broad people-to-people exchange between Japan and the United States has been a key pillar of our Alliance since its inception. Close ties and shared values between the people of the United States and the people of Japan form the foundation of the global partnership between our nations.” New Hampshire celebrates Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day every September 5th in honor of the citizen diplomacy displayed here in 1905 and today.
In another parallel, the Obama-Abe statement announced that to symbolize “the grassroots friendship uniting our nations,” the U.S. government and a range of private sector partners have created the Friendship Blossoms Initiative, which is currently planting 3,000 American dogwood trees throughout Japan on behalf of the people of the United States, to reciprocate the City of Tokyo’s gift of 3,000 flowering cherry trees to Washington, DC in 1912. The 1912 gift from Japan is celebrated each year during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, an iconic spring event in Washington, D.C. When the Nichinan students visited Portsmouth in October they commemorated the planting at the High School of cherry trees descended from those Washington trees. Japan repeated its gift of trees to 32 cities across the country in 2012 for the 100th anniversary and the Japan-America Society of NH received some of those trees, in recognition of the fact that the 1912 gift was in thanks for US help in negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War – with the Portsmouth Peace Treaty. Full text of MOFA summit statement.
2015: Portsmouth welcomed two delegations from Nichinan, Japan -- Portsmouth's Sister City and the birthplace of lead Japanese negotiator Baron Komura. Nichinan Mayor Kyohei Sakita and members of the Nichinan City Council, Chamber of Commerce and Sister City Friendship Association and a delegation from the Nichinan Gakuen Junior Senior High School led by Director General Masakuni Soeda with four teachers and nineteen students traveled to Portsmouth for the celebration. The students participated in homestays with Portsmouth High School students and other activities including the formal commemorations of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day. On Friday, September 4th, Portsmouth Mayor Robert Lister and City Manager John Bohenko welcomed the Nichinan City and school officials with a reception and tour of Portsmouth City Hall. The Mayors discussed their respective City Council responsibilities while touring the Portsmouth City Council Chambers, following the exchange of gifts. On Saturday, September 5th, the Nichinan delegations started the day with a tour of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where the Treaty was signed 110 years before. They then visited the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit in the John Paul Jones House Museum. In the afternoon, the groups from Nichinan joined several Russian diplomats for a public celebration of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day at Portsmouth's outdoor history museum, Strawbery Banke. Mayor Robert Lister read the Governor's Proclamation and then, after the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard whistle blew, the audience joined the chorus of church bells throughout the City by ringing small commemorative bells (below), including four brass bells from the historic foundry in Novograd, Russia, presented by the visiting diplomats.
2016: In April 2016, a delegation of 11 Portsmouth High School students and 8 adults traveled to Nichinan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that Sister City agreement, hosted by Mayor Kyohei Sakita who visited Portsmouth in September 2015 to celebrate the Treaty 110th anniversary. The students reciprocated the dozen-plus Sister School visits exchanged with the Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School since 1997. Each August, a group of students from Nihonmatsu make their annual visit to host families in Hanover.
2017: Participating in this year’s Sister School visit to Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School were Assistant Superintendent George Shea; students: Sara Gardner, Julia Matthews, Kianna Crooker, Ryland Blaine, Harper Shea, Padraic Donovan, Chithra Singareddy, Allison Madeira, Elly Guzikowski and Cassandra Farrell; and Portsmouth High School teachers: Laura LaVallee, Judy Butler, Kate Fitzpatrick, Brian Betournay and Dee Barrett.
On Thursday morning October 5, 2017 twenty Japanese students sang a traditional 1904 Japanese song “The Hills of Home” to the assembled student body of Portsmouth High School. The Portsmouth High School Chorus answered them with the same song, sung in English, which they’d prepared as part of the Japanese Welcome Assembly. The visiting students, three teachers and the school principal Shougo Fujiwara formed this year’s delegation from Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School, the tenth annual homestay visit to Portsmouth. The Nichinan students, all high school freshmen, spent the long weekend with Portsmouth families, accompanying their Sister School companions to classes at the high school, group activities and sightseeing with their host families. The students were: Anon Sakamoto, Momona Hidaka, Haruna Minobe, Shion Morino, Shiori Numata, Akari Takeda, Sora Ninomiya, Manaka Kuroki, Miyu Yoshida, Nene Kadogawa, Rua Araki, Karin Wakamatsu, Hinako Kawano, Yusuke Nozaki, Issei Yamauchi, Tatsuki Oiso, Yugo Miyamoto, Keiya Nimura, Shuta Sakimura and Kiryu Sekiya. Their hosts were: Ellen Baker, Claudia Groleau, Sara Gardner, Olivia Hammer, Isabelle Neubauer, Emma Katona, Julia Matthews, Elly Guzikowski, Anneliese Raynolds, Olivia Duplessis, Caroline and AnnCatherine Conneen, Cassandra Farrell, Kianna Crooker, Wemple Family, Stefan Langer, Harper Shea, Ryland Blaine, Padraic Donovan and Daniel Rincon. In addition to the choral performances, the Welcome Assembly included a demonstration of karate by three of the female Japanese students and by the male black belt second place winner in the Japanese state championship. The Assembly also enjoyed an example of traditional Japanese dance. The Portsmouth High School Band performed the Japanese National Anthem. Following welcomes by both Mayor Jack Blalock and Principal Mary Lyons, ten “Little Clippers” from Little Harbor School presented a dance and then helped distribute gifts from the City and the High School to each student. The three Gakuen teachers included Key Barlow, English teacher; Tadanobu Kuranaga, culinary arts teacher who joined the kitchen team at Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Café on Thursday night; and Manami Kawasoe, nursing school teacher who observed a team of Portsmouth Regional Hospital nurses at work on Friday. She was the guest of Dr. JoAnn Warren who accompanied the 2016 Sister City/Sister School visit to Nichinan with her daughter. On Friday, Stephanie Seacord, director of public affairs for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum welcomed the Nichinan students and their Portsmouth counterparts to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit in the John Paul Jones House Museum where they viewed a 1905 film of the diplomats arriving in Portsmouth and the original chair Baron Komura used at the peace conference. Friday evening, Mary and John Lyons hosted a dinner for the three teachers and Principal Fujiwara along with five teachers who have accompanied previous Nichinan trips (including Laura LaVallee, PHS English teacher who coordinates the trips) and five teachers who are planning to accompany the spring 2018 trip. Saturday the Japanese visitors enjoyed a traditional New England autumn weekend with their host families, visiting the NH Fall Festival at Strawbery Banke, Applecrest Farm, the Topsfield Fair and Dover’s annual Apple Harvest Day. After Portsmouth, the group visited New York City before traveling back to Nichinan.
In 2017 the new Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Sister Cities & Citizen Diplomacy also organized a Pen Pal Program between Portsmouth and Nichinan students, with help from Portsmouth High School and the Portsmouth Public Library. The first batch of 18 letters from Portsmouth traveled back to Nichinan with the delegation.
2018: In October 2018, 12 visiting students, 3 teachers and Principal Fujimoto from Nichinan Gakeun Jr-Sr High School, Sister School to Portsmouth High School and Portsmouth Assistant Mayor Cliff Lazenby dedicated a new City Historical Marker detailing the history of the South Mill Pond cherry trees, a gift from Nichinan, Portsmouth’s Sister City. The historic marker is located on the Junkins Avenue causeway – halfway between City Hall and downtown, overlooking City Hall and the banks of South Mill Pond where the cherry trees grow.
2019: This year, there were nineteen students traveling to Nichinan; six of them, members of the high school Clippers Performing Band (noted with an *asterisk). The Portsmouth delegation includes PHS teachers Steve and Amanda Cirillo (Performing Arts), Katherine Stroup (Speech/Language), Kim Vargo (Math) and Sarah Jones (Art). The students include Zach Barrett*, Dylan Connolly*, Jack Fremeau, Grace Goddard, Matthew Lovern, Molly Perkins, Stanley Jurus, Nick Fuller, Alex Kratimenos, Belle Ritzo, Logan Whittaker, Michael Bell*, Claudia Groleau, Amelie Logue, Isabelle Neubauer*, Abigail Veilleux*, Emily Whisler*, Harini Subramanian*, Hannah Westlake. While in Nichinan, the students stay with host families arranged through Nichinan Gakeun Junior-Senior High School. The school is widely known for its music program; and when a new Music Room performance space was added a few years ago, the Director designed the décor in the Clippers’ maroon and gold. In October a delegation from Nichinan will again visit Portsmouth and stay with local families
2020-2022: Exchange trips were suspended during the pandemic. But Nichinan Gakuen continued to organize an annual bellringing ceremony with the Mayor of Nichinan to commemorate Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day.
2023:
2024: Portsmouth High School welcomed 17 Japanese students, two teachers and the principal of Portsmouth's Sister School Nichinan Gakuen Jr-Sr High School in October.
2025: This year marks the 120th anniversary of the Portsmouth peace conference orchestrated by President Theodore Roosevelt to end the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 and the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty on September 5, 1905. It also marks the 40th anniversary of the Sister City agreement between Portsmouth and Nichinan, Japan. On April 24, another delegation of Portsmouth High School students, teachers and PHS Principal Steve Chinosi traveled to Nichinan and visits to Kyoto and Tokyo. Students included Yaseen Abdelsadek, Claire Audet, Sophia Berling, Cullen Dennett, Olivia Evilsizer, Ollie Fitzpatrick, Emily Frank, Eli George, Ben Gotlieb, Angelina Halim, Daisha Hall, Adelena Hillman, Ted Hindle, Samantha Hueber, Ace Keenan-Kelley, Clara Kelley, Owen Kohler, Kelly Moriarty, Matias Navarro-Manchego, Winter Ornopia, Kerris Parkington, Daniel Sabalakov, Jin Schmitt and Sophie Williams. Teachers/chaperones include Principal Chinosi, Laura LaVallee, Geoff Jablonski, Kerri Feehan, Jenn McGervey, Doreen George, Marissa Brawn and Lauren Isabelle. They carried greetings from Mayor Deaglan McEachern, the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Sister Cities and the Japan-America Society of NH.
New Hampshire has two Sister City relationships with Japan: Portsmouth and Nichinan; and Hanover and Nihonmatsu. Both are directly connected because of Treaty history. Baron Komura, the lead Japanese diplomat at the peace conference in Portsmouth, was born in Nichinan. Kan’ichi Asakawa, a young history scholar at Dartmouth College, whowrote the first history of the causes of the Russo-Japanese War and came to Portsmouth to observe the peace conference, was from Nihonmatsu.
In 1985, on the 80th anniversary of the Treaty, the Mayor of Nichinan reached out to Portsmouth Mayor Mary Keenan to suggest a formal Sister City bond to strengthen the friendship begun in 1905. In 1986 a delegation of 21 Portsmouth citizens – including Eileen Foley who would become the city’s Ambassador to Nichinan -- traveled to Japan to ratify the formal agreement with the Mayor of Nichinan.
2009: In 2009, 19 students from the Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School, their teacher and their superintendent visited Portsmouth High School.
2010: In 2010 members of the Portsmouth High School Madrigal Singers visited Nichinan.and on Sunday, October 3, 2010, twenty students and four teachers from Nichinan Gakuen Junior High School accompanied their Director General Masakuni Soeda and Vice Principal Masaki Kawagoe to Portsmouth. The students stayed with Portsmouth families for four days, reciprocating the visit to Nichinan in August 2010 by members of the Portsmouth High School Madrigal Singers. Accompanying the students for the start of the trip were Nichinan Deputy Mayor Katuhisa Sakamoto, the Chairman of the Nichinan Chamber of Commerce & Industry Mithuo Shimizu and the Nichinan General Affairs Section Manager Masahiro Murasumi. They first visited the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit at the Portsmouth Historical Society museum where they were greeted by a member of the Japan-America Society of NH. They then were welcomed by the Mayor of Portsmouth, Tom Ferrini and the Superintendent of Portsmouth Schools, Ed McDonough, with Assistant Superintendent Steven Zadravec at Wentworth By the Sea Hotel. NH Senator Martha Fuller Clark, sponsor of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day bill in the NH Legislature (who also participated in the Portsmouth-Nichinan Sister School program at its start), former Mayor Eileen Foley and a representative of the Japan-America Society of NH (who presented the Nichinan visitors with copies of the Governor's Proclamation of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day) also participated. Bill co-sponsor Representative Robin Read also attended. The students spent four days visiting Portsmouth High School and staying with local families.
2011: The Japan-America Society of NH took the lead on the Nichinan, Japan Sister City visit and homestay student exchange in October 2011 by 17 students and 4 teachers from the Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School. In addition, 15 adults including the Deputy Mayor of Nichinan traveled to Portsmouth at the same time to honor the 100th anniversary of the death of Baron Komura. JASNH worked with the schools and the City of Portsmouth to organize a welcoming ceremony at City Hall, a luncheon at Wentworth By the Sea and tours of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit (left) and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The school hosted an evening American Supper for the guests with the homestay program families.
2013: The City of Nichinan funded the planting of the original cherry trees around South Mill Pond in Portsmouth. Students from Nichinan have helped plant and dedicate new trees, descended from the Washington originals, as have students from Nihonmatsu. In 2013, Portsmouth High School Students and students visiting from Nichinan participated in a ceremonial cherry tree planting at Portsmouth High School.
2014: Visiting Sister City exchange students from the Nichinan Gakuen Jr-Sr High School in Nichinan, Japan placed a granite plaque for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial cherry trees on the banks of South Mill Pond, opposite the Portsmouth Middle School. In May 2014, Portsmouth Middle School's Student Council members planted cherry trees on the banks of the South Mill Pond where cherry trees given to Portsmouth by Sister City Nichinan have bloomed since 1985. Four Portsmouth High School students and their teachers visited Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School in Portsmouth’s Sister City of Nichinan, Japan as part of an ongoing mutual exchange program between the two schools. At the same time, the US and Foreign Ministry of Japan released a statement resulting from the summit on April 24 between the two countries’ leaders, expressing the intent to double student exchanges between the US and Japan. The Portsmouth High School delegation now in Japan includes students: James Saxe, Brenta Abbey, Madeline Dinino and Izzy Halle; and teachers: Patrick Ganz and Kyle Harrison. "Everyone agrees that the exchange program with Nichinan is an extraordinary opportunity for the students who participate," said Portsmouth High School Principal Jeff Collins. "It can be a life-changing experience to share another culture and to be the host for international visitors. Understanding the special history Portsmouth shares with Nichinan magnifies the impact."
According to the joint US-Japan statement, “Broad people-to-people exchange between Japan and the United States has been a key pillar of our Alliance since its inception. Close ties and shared values between the people of the United States and the people of Japan form the foundation of the global partnership between our nations. To ensure the future strength of the U.S.-Japan relationship, the two governments share the goal, established by the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), of doubling two-way student exchange by the year 2020. Recognizing that people-to-people exchange is an irreplaceable investment in the future of the Alliance, President Obama and Prime Minister Abe announced their intent to create a new bilateral exchange program that would enable Japanese youth to visit the United States, enhance their English language abilities, and develop professional skills through internship opportunities. The leaders also intend to explore internship opportunities for U.S. youth in Japan.” The announcement credited both binational government programs such as Fulbright scholarships and the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program as well as non-governmental (NGO) initiatives between Sister Cities.
In a follow-up statement the US-Japan Conference of Cultural and Education Interchange (CULCON) noted, “Broad people-to-people exchange between Japan and the United States has been a key pillar of our Alliance since its inception. Close ties and shared values between the people of the United States and the people of Japan form the foundation of the global partnership between our nations.” New Hampshire celebrates Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day every September 5th in honor of the citizen diplomacy displayed here in 1905 and today.
In another parallel, the Obama-Abe statement announced that to symbolize “the grassroots friendship uniting our nations,” the U.S. government and a range of private sector partners have created the Friendship Blossoms Initiative, which is currently planting 3,000 American dogwood trees throughout Japan on behalf of the people of the United States, to reciprocate the City of Tokyo’s gift of 3,000 flowering cherry trees to Washington, DC in 1912. The 1912 gift from Japan is celebrated each year during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, an iconic spring event in Washington, D.C. When the Nichinan students visited Portsmouth in October they commemorated the planting at the High School of cherry trees descended from those Washington trees. Japan repeated its gift of trees to 32 cities across the country in 2012 for the 100th anniversary and the Japan-America Society of NH received some of those trees, in recognition of the fact that the 1912 gift was in thanks for US help in negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War – with the Portsmouth Peace Treaty. Full text of MOFA summit statement.
2015: Portsmouth welcomed two delegations from Nichinan, Japan -- Portsmouth's Sister City and the birthplace of lead Japanese negotiator Baron Komura. Nichinan Mayor Kyohei Sakita and members of the Nichinan City Council, Chamber of Commerce and Sister City Friendship Association and a delegation from the Nichinan Gakuen Junior Senior High School led by Director General Masakuni Soeda with four teachers and nineteen students traveled to Portsmouth for the celebration. The students participated in homestays with Portsmouth High School students and other activities including the formal commemorations of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day. On Friday, September 4th, Portsmouth Mayor Robert Lister and City Manager John Bohenko welcomed the Nichinan City and school officials with a reception and tour of Portsmouth City Hall. The Mayors discussed their respective City Council responsibilities while touring the Portsmouth City Council Chambers, following the exchange of gifts. On Saturday, September 5th, the Nichinan delegations started the day with a tour of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where the Treaty was signed 110 years before. They then visited the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit in the John Paul Jones House Museum. In the afternoon, the groups from Nichinan joined several Russian diplomats for a public celebration of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day at Portsmouth's outdoor history museum, Strawbery Banke. Mayor Robert Lister read the Governor's Proclamation and then, after the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard whistle blew, the audience joined the chorus of church bells throughout the City by ringing small commemorative bells (below), including four brass bells from the historic foundry in Novograd, Russia, presented by the visiting diplomats.
2016: In April 2016, a delegation of 11 Portsmouth High School students and 8 adults traveled to Nichinan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that Sister City agreement, hosted by Mayor Kyohei Sakita who visited Portsmouth in September 2015 to celebrate the Treaty 110th anniversary. The students reciprocated the dozen-plus Sister School visits exchanged with the Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School since 1997. Each August, a group of students from Nihonmatsu make their annual visit to host families in Hanover.
2017: Participating in this year’s Sister School visit to Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School were Assistant Superintendent George Shea; students: Sara Gardner, Julia Matthews, Kianna Crooker, Ryland Blaine, Harper Shea, Padraic Donovan, Chithra Singareddy, Allison Madeira, Elly Guzikowski and Cassandra Farrell; and Portsmouth High School teachers: Laura LaVallee, Judy Butler, Kate Fitzpatrick, Brian Betournay and Dee Barrett.
On Thursday morning October 5, 2017 twenty Japanese students sang a traditional 1904 Japanese song “The Hills of Home” to the assembled student body of Portsmouth High School. The Portsmouth High School Chorus answered them with the same song, sung in English, which they’d prepared as part of the Japanese Welcome Assembly. The visiting students, three teachers and the school principal Shougo Fujiwara formed this year’s delegation from Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School, the tenth annual homestay visit to Portsmouth. The Nichinan students, all high school freshmen, spent the long weekend with Portsmouth families, accompanying their Sister School companions to classes at the high school, group activities and sightseeing with their host families. The students were: Anon Sakamoto, Momona Hidaka, Haruna Minobe, Shion Morino, Shiori Numata, Akari Takeda, Sora Ninomiya, Manaka Kuroki, Miyu Yoshida, Nene Kadogawa, Rua Araki, Karin Wakamatsu, Hinako Kawano, Yusuke Nozaki, Issei Yamauchi, Tatsuki Oiso, Yugo Miyamoto, Keiya Nimura, Shuta Sakimura and Kiryu Sekiya. Their hosts were: Ellen Baker, Claudia Groleau, Sara Gardner, Olivia Hammer, Isabelle Neubauer, Emma Katona, Julia Matthews, Elly Guzikowski, Anneliese Raynolds, Olivia Duplessis, Caroline and AnnCatherine Conneen, Cassandra Farrell, Kianna Crooker, Wemple Family, Stefan Langer, Harper Shea, Ryland Blaine, Padraic Donovan and Daniel Rincon. In addition to the choral performances, the Welcome Assembly included a demonstration of karate by three of the female Japanese students and by the male black belt second place winner in the Japanese state championship. The Assembly also enjoyed an example of traditional Japanese dance. The Portsmouth High School Band performed the Japanese National Anthem. Following welcomes by both Mayor Jack Blalock and Principal Mary Lyons, ten “Little Clippers” from Little Harbor School presented a dance and then helped distribute gifts from the City and the High School to each student. The three Gakuen teachers included Key Barlow, English teacher; Tadanobu Kuranaga, culinary arts teacher who joined the kitchen team at Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Café on Thursday night; and Manami Kawasoe, nursing school teacher who observed a team of Portsmouth Regional Hospital nurses at work on Friday. She was the guest of Dr. JoAnn Warren who accompanied the 2016 Sister City/Sister School visit to Nichinan with her daughter. On Friday, Stephanie Seacord, director of public affairs for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum welcomed the Nichinan students and their Portsmouth counterparts to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit in the John Paul Jones House Museum where they viewed a 1905 film of the diplomats arriving in Portsmouth and the original chair Baron Komura used at the peace conference. Friday evening, Mary and John Lyons hosted a dinner for the three teachers and Principal Fujiwara along with five teachers who have accompanied previous Nichinan trips (including Laura LaVallee, PHS English teacher who coordinates the trips) and five teachers who are planning to accompany the spring 2018 trip. Saturday the Japanese visitors enjoyed a traditional New England autumn weekend with their host families, visiting the NH Fall Festival at Strawbery Banke, Applecrest Farm, the Topsfield Fair and Dover’s annual Apple Harvest Day. After Portsmouth, the group visited New York City before traveling back to Nichinan.
In 2017 the new Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Sister Cities & Citizen Diplomacy also organized a Pen Pal Program between Portsmouth and Nichinan students, with help from Portsmouth High School and the Portsmouth Public Library. The first batch of 18 letters from Portsmouth traveled back to Nichinan with the delegation.
2018: In October 2018, 12 visiting students, 3 teachers and Principal Fujimoto from Nichinan Gakeun Jr-Sr High School, Sister School to Portsmouth High School and Portsmouth Assistant Mayor Cliff Lazenby dedicated a new City Historical Marker detailing the history of the South Mill Pond cherry trees, a gift from Nichinan, Portsmouth’s Sister City. The historic marker is located on the Junkins Avenue causeway – halfway between City Hall and downtown, overlooking City Hall and the banks of South Mill Pond where the cherry trees grow.
2019: This year, there were nineteen students traveling to Nichinan; six of them, members of the high school Clippers Performing Band (noted with an *asterisk). The Portsmouth delegation includes PHS teachers Steve and Amanda Cirillo (Performing Arts), Katherine Stroup (Speech/Language), Kim Vargo (Math) and Sarah Jones (Art). The students include Zach Barrett*, Dylan Connolly*, Jack Fremeau, Grace Goddard, Matthew Lovern, Molly Perkins, Stanley Jurus, Nick Fuller, Alex Kratimenos, Belle Ritzo, Logan Whittaker, Michael Bell*, Claudia Groleau, Amelie Logue, Isabelle Neubauer*, Abigail Veilleux*, Emily Whisler*, Harini Subramanian*, Hannah Westlake. While in Nichinan, the students stay with host families arranged through Nichinan Gakeun Junior-Senior High School. The school is widely known for its music program; and when a new Music Room performance space was added a few years ago, the Director designed the décor in the Clippers’ maroon and gold. In October a delegation from Nichinan will again visit Portsmouth and stay with local families
2020-2022: Exchange trips were suspended during the pandemic. But Nichinan Gakuen continued to organize an annual bellringing ceremony with the Mayor of Nichinan to commemorate Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day.
2023:
2024: Portsmouth High School welcomed 17 Japanese students, two teachers and the principal of Portsmouth's Sister School Nichinan Gakuen Jr-Sr High School in October.
2025: This year marks the 120th anniversary of the Portsmouth peace conference orchestrated by President Theodore Roosevelt to end the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 and the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty on September 5, 1905. It also marks the 40th anniversary of the Sister City agreement between Portsmouth and Nichinan, Japan. On April 24, another delegation of Portsmouth High School students, teachers and PHS Principal Steve Chinosi traveled to Nichinan and visits to Kyoto and Tokyo. Students included Yaseen Abdelsadek, Claire Audet, Sophia Berling, Cullen Dennett, Olivia Evilsizer, Ollie Fitzpatrick, Emily Frank, Eli George, Ben Gotlieb, Angelina Halim, Daisha Hall, Adelena Hillman, Ted Hindle, Samantha Hueber, Ace Keenan-Kelley, Clara Kelley, Owen Kohler, Kelly Moriarty, Matias Navarro-Manchego, Winter Ornopia, Kerris Parkington, Daniel Sabalakov, Jin Schmitt and Sophie Williams. Teachers/chaperones include Principal Chinosi, Laura LaVallee, Geoff Jablonski, Kerri Feehan, Jenn McGervey, Doreen George, Marissa Brawn and Lauren Isabelle. They carried greetings from Mayor Deaglan McEachern, the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Sister Cities and the Japan-America Society of NH.
