Kiyomi Kojima

(May 15, 2011) During the summer of 1987 my wife Kayo and I and longtime friends Mary and Ken McKinley visited Kameoka during a trip to China and Japan. While in Kameoka we met a woman named Kiyomi Kojima who was a translator for Mayor Taniguchi. Kiyomi had recently moved back to Kameoka after she and her husband had lived for a period of time in Brazil where a fairly large number of Japanese live. A few years later when the OSU-K campus opened in Kameoka  Kiyomi was a member of the staff there and during our two years with the OSU-K program Kayo and I became friends with her and that friendship has lasted  through the years. After OSU-K closed its doors the facilities were used by the Kameoka International Center where Kiyomi was the director for a number of years. She was a real asset to Kameoka since she is fluent in Portuguese, Chinese, English as well as Japanese. Since our time at OSU-K in the early 1990s we have stayed in touch with Kiyomi and have seen her during several visits to Kameoka. She was very helpful when the 9-member citizen delegation from Stillwater that went to Japan in 2007 and started and ended our tour of the country in Kameoka and she was again very helpful when Kayo and I visited Japan last fall. Kiyomi retired at the end of March but we hope she continues to be involved in sister cities activities between Kameoka and Stillwater.