New flag in Moses Lake
Moses Lake-Yonezawa Sister City Committee member Ginny Hirai explains the meaning of the Yonezawa, Japan, city flag (held up by fellow committee member Terry Moore) during a regular session of the Moses Lake City Council on Tuesday while Council Member Dustin Swartz, who was an exchange student to Yonezawa, looks on.
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
The Japanese name of the city of Yonezawa — Yonezawa-shi — with the stylized cherry blossom used on the city’s flag and drawn from the Chinese character 米, which means rice in Chinese.
MOSES LAKE — There’s a new flag on display in the Moses Lake City Council chambers.
During a regular meeting of the Moses Lake City Council on Tuesday, Ginny Hirai and Terry Moore, both members of the Moses Lake - Yonezawa Sister City Committee, formally unfurled a Yonezawa city flag that will now be on permanent display in Moses Lake City Hall.
“I want to thank the city of Moses Lake for accepting this flag from our sister city Yonezawa, Japan,” Hirai told council members. “To have it displayed here in this room will have a special meaning too, and our future visitors from Japan will appreciate seeing it here.”
The flag was one of two gifts the Yonezawa city government gave to the city of Moses Lake to formally mark the 40th anniversary of the Moses Lake - Yonezawa sister city relationship, which was marked with a tree planting ceremony in September. The sister-city relationship was launched in 1981, but the 40th-anniversary celebration was delayed until this year as a result of restrictions imposed in both countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hirai said the design on the flag — a cherry blossom — is actually more than just the picture of a flower. The first part of the city’s name, Yone, means rice, and the flag designer exploded the Chinese character — 米 — used in the city’s name 米沢市 in order to make the cherry blossom, Hirai said.
“Rice and cherry blossoms are two important things in Japan,” she said. “The artist was very clever in creating this design for their flag.”
The city of Yonezawa also gave the city of Moses Lake a special stole, or tapestry, of the night sky, with landscapes on both the top and bottom to symbolize both cities. According to City Manager Allison Williams, the work is designed to show the two communities as they both look up at the same night sky.
“It’s a very thoughtful gift as we celebrate our 40th anniversary,” Williams said.
“We appreciate the relationship that we have with our sister city Yonezawa,” added Mayor Don Myers.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
