Knowledge

Imagine that your city has a friend—but not a neighboring city. Instead, it is a city on the other side of the world, across an ocean, where people speak a completely different language. That is exactly the case with Seattle: it has more than twenty sister cities around the world. But the most remarkable thing is not that such friendships exist; it is that one of them was nearly lost—and ordinary people saved it.

What Is a Sister City?

Imagine that your school became friends with a school in another country. You write letters to each other, exchange gifts, and sometimes visit one another. Cities form friendships in much the same way! This kind of relationship is called a “sister-city partnership.” Cities exchange students, artists, gardeners, doctors—anyone who can help them learn more about one another and support each other.

In 1957, the Japanese city of Kobe became Seattle’s first sister city. It was a bold decision: just twelve years after the end of the war between the United States and Japan, Seattle residents chose not to hold on to resentment but to extend a hand of friendship. Thanks to this friendship, Seattle gained a genuine Japanese garden—with ponds, bridges, and trees specially brought from Japan so that Seattle residents could experience a small piece of Kobe without leaving their city.

A Friendship Braver Than Politics

An even more remarkable story took place in 1973, when Seattle became a sister city of Tashkent—a city that was then part of the Soviet Union. At the time, relations between the United States and the USSR were extremely tense. This period is known as the “Cold War” because the two countries did not fight openly, but neither did they trust each other.

While politicians argued and feared one another, ordinary residents of Seattle and Tashkent decided to form a genuine friendship. Music teachers traveled to teach each other new songs, gardeners shared seeds from rare flowers, and schoolchildren wrote letters to their peers on the other side of the world. In this way, ordinary people built a bridge of friendship even where government officials were afraid to take a step toward one another.

When the Friendship Nearly Disappeared

Years later, when Seattle began facing problems with its city budget, officials decided that sister-city programs were an area where money could be saved. At first glance, festivals and exchanges might seem like pleasant extras rather than something truly important.

But then something remarkable happened: ordinary city residents disagreed. Volunteers—people who work for free simply because they believe in an important cause—took it upon themselves to preserve the friendships. They organized concerts without city funding, paid for student trips themselves, and collected donations to buy gifts for sister cities. A music teacher might bring a choir to another country using her own savings, while a gardener might grow a rare flower especially for a gift garden.

As one volunteer involved in the city’s friendship programs said, “Friendship between cities lives not in City Hall documents, but in the hearts of the people who believe in it.” That is why, despite the lack of money, Seattle’s friendships with its sister cities did not disappear.

What Remains Today

Today, while walking through Seattle’s parks, you may come across traces of this remarkable story: a Japanese garden—a gift from Kobe; sculptures and fountains donated by other sister cities; and annual festivals where visitors can sample food from around the world or watch dances from different cultures.

This story teaches us an important lesson: friendship between cities—and between people in general—does not appear by itself, nor is it sustained solely by money or decisions made by officials. It survives because someone—a teacher, a gardener, or an ordinary student—believes that being friends with someone on the other side of the world is worth the effort. And perhaps one day, you will write a letter to a friend in another country and continue this tradition.

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