Quite the contrary, since the wake of the war, a fruitful relationship has thrived between Salt Lake City and Matsumoto - a town, like Utah's capital, bordered by mountains and familiar with isolation.

That sister-city connection - not well-known despite being the fifth oldest in the nation - marks its 50th anniversary this month. To celebrate, the Center for Documentary Arts has assembled a free exhibit that is on display this month at the Main Library.

"We're not looking at this as a panacea but it does offer something of use," says executive director Leslie Kelen, who nonetheless labels the showcase a "model of [postwar] reconciliation."

In it, visitors learn about Fumio Hongo, a platoon commander who suffered torture and other abuses at British hands during his three years as a POW.

There is Tokyo's gift of 1,000 cherry trees - slated for the International Peace Gardens on Salt Lake City's west side - that were burned by U.S. Customs then later replaced.

And, despite their difficulty proselytizing in Japan after the war, LDS missionaries are lauded for their successes teaching English on the island.

"It's about local politics, local history, local culture - and it tells a good story about underdogs," says University of Utah professor Tim Chambless, whose son Ross spent three years constructing the exhibit as curator.

"It was challenging since memories fade, and I had to do lots of interviews in Japanese," Ross Chambless says. "I hope it encourages people about the potential to get involved on the citizen-diplomacy level."

The sister-city concept is the brainchild of President Eisenhower, who in 1956 looked to diffuse Cold War anxieties with a "people-to-people" initiative. The Salt Lake City-Matsumoto bond was born in 1958 and grew a year later after a visit from then-U. President A. Ray Olpin.

Despite a larger population (approaching 250,000), Matsumoto's similarities to Salt Lake City are plenty. It has a university, like the U., on its east bench. A downtown castle from Japan's feudal period is not unlike the LDS Temple. And mountains ring one side of the city. (That image is re-created for the display by Atsushi Yamamoto, an artist who just graduated from the U.'s College of Architecture.)

Since the 1970s, Matsumoto has sent dozens of students to Utah's capital each July to live with host families and study English. The teens run rivers, barbecue in Liberty Park, and wave from floats during the Days of '47 Parade.

In return, Salt Lake City sends college graduates to Matsumoto to teach English.

"I think there are more people in Matsumoto that know Utah history than Utah kids," insists Fred Ball, who resurrected the sister-city traditions in 1971 as president of the Salt Lake Chamber. Shortly after, Ball bonded with Hongo.

"He poured out his heart to me, and I poured out my heart to him," Ball recalls. "He knew I was a devout Mormon teetotaler, but I sat with him many nights with his Dewar's White Label."

Exhibit pictures feature Matsumoto and Salt Lake City residents doing a banzai cheer at Snowbird resort, rafting the Colorado River and posing by the LDS Temple. There also is a shot of gubernatorial hopeful Bob Springmeyer marrying his wife, Gwen (in a borrowed kimono), in a mountain shrine after a night filled with beer and sake. The Springmeyers were so fond of the experience, they returned to Matsumoto on their 10-, 20- and 30-year anniversaries.

"It was not just a marriage between two people, but two cities," Gwen Springmeyer says in the exhibit.

Mayors Ted Wilson and Palmer DePaulis helped foster the partnership, which was overseen for three decades by now-retired city employee Randolph Taylor.

"It's been a very enriching experience," says Taylor, who spent 1986 in Matsumoto with his wife and six kids and later hosted Japanese workers in Utah.

In 1998, Matsumoto took in members of Salt Lake City's Olympic committee during the 1998 Winter Olympics in nearby Nagano.

Utah's oldest sister-city program works, Taylor notes, since it is more about people than government.

"Ours has been more on the human understanding level - and there's been quite a bit."

djensen@sltrib.com

Celebrating a 50-year friendship

A free exhibit outlining the 50-year sister-city relationship between Salt Lake City and Matsumoto, Japan, is on display this month on the main floor of the Salt Lake City Main Library.

Combining oral history and personal portraits, the display showcases everything from an impromptu wedding in a Shinto shrine to float trips on the Colorado River to moments from the Pioneer Day parade. It also features vignettes from Japanese visitors and quotes from President Eisenhower, who launched the sister-city program in 1956. Later this month, Matsumoto's mayor will arrive with a delegation to celebrate the 50th anniversary. An open house with the group and Mayor Ralph Becker is scheduled for July 25 at 2:30 p.m. at the library. This fall, organizers hope to take the exhibit to Utah schools to "continue the dialogue."