Japan Airlines CEO gives statement

MOSES LAKE - An eagle watches over drivers now as they approach Yonezawa Boulevard.

Representatives from the City of Moses Lake and Yonezawa, Japan, unveiled and dedicated a new statue Monday. Exchange students from Yonezawa, Japan, and Moses Lake host-students were among those watching the event.

Mayor Ron Covey said the statue left him speechless.

"This statue … this sculpture is absolutely beautiful," Covey said. "This will stand for years and years to come to show the friendship and the love that exists between Yonezawa city and the City of Moses Lake."

The sculpture sits atop a white granite boulder beside the roundabout on Yonezawa. Reading a plate on the rock, Covey said the rock was excavated during Yonezawa's construction in 2000 and is more than 12,000 years old.

Japan Airlines Director of Administration Shintaro Watanabe read a statement in Japanese from Japan Airlines CEO Haruka Nishimatsu.

The comments were then translated into English.

"To commemorate the close relationship that has developed between Japan Airlines and the City of Moses Lake over these many years through the Moses Lake Training Center, we would like to donate his Otaka Poppo, the world-renowned craft work from the City of Yonezawa, to be placed at the starting point of Yonezawa (Boulevard)," Nishimatsu stated.

Nishimatsu stated Japan Airlines launched its flight crew training in Moses Lake 40 years ago.

"Through advancement in technology, we have been able to build training facilities in Japan and will close our Moses Lake Training Center, (which is) filled with so many good memories," he stated.

In 1981, the City of Moses Lake requested to become sister cities with Yonezawa, Nishimatsu stated. JAL helped establish the program where high school students from both cities can visit one another. Since then, the program allowed about 300 students and 200 citizens to participate.