Ogden’s International connection - A Sesquicentennial feature

Pork came full circle when a group of 140 Iowa Farm Bureau leaders and the governor of  a prefecture had the same line of pork (originating from a 1960 airlift) for supper at the base of Mt. Fuji while listening to a  Japanese drum line.

Even after several decades, Iowa’s generous gift of breeding hogs has not been forgotten, observed Boone County Farm Bureau President Bret Pierce who was among those visiting Yamanashi Prefecture, Iowa’s sister state in Japan last month.

Pierce said the Iowa contingency was continually greeted by hosts expressing gratitude for Iowa’s help after two huge typhoons devastated the agricultural area near Tokyo in 1959.

The help came in the form of 36 hogs (18 Landrace, 10 Hampshire and 8 Minnesota No. 2) that would provide genetics to build and modernize pork production not only in the Yamanashi area, but throughout all of Japan.

Over 50 years after the famous air lift of hogs to Japan, the visiting Iowans were served pork from the offspring of those genetic lines.

How the Hog Lift came about

Iowa  farmer Richard Thomas’s single idea started a chain reaction of citizen diplomacy that began with a Hog Lift and continues through cultural exchanges today.

M/Sgt. Thomas was stationed with the U.S. Air Force in Tokyo in 1959 when the typhoons struck. In response to the disaster Thomas suggested air lifting hogs from Iowa to Japan. 

His efforts not only led to the restoration of livestock herds but was a catalyst for international diplomacy.   

Carol Grant, Executive Director, Iowa Sister States, says Thomas’s idea for the hog lift initiated a “mutually beneficial trade relationship between Japan and, not only Iowa, but the entire United States.”

Albert Miller of Ogden was one of two local farmers who assisted on the airlift. Miller and Roscoe Marsden of Ames departed for Japan Saturday, Jan. 19, 1960. The journey would take them from Des Moines to San Francisco, on to Hawaii and Wake Island, with a final flight to Tokyo and Kofu, capital of Yamanashi.  

Through a coordinated effort of the National Corn Grower’s Association of which Miller and Marsden were members of the board of directors, and the United States Department of Agriculture, the Iowa farmers hoped to provide better diet for the Japanese.

An article published in The Ogden Reporter Jan. 14, 1960, stated the hogs and feed were donated by various Iowa firms and livestock breeders including the Walnut Grove Food Products Co. of Atlantic, the Union Bank and Trust Co. of Ottawa and the Nixon Feed Co. and Foxbilt Feed Co. of Des Moines. A C-130 transport aircraft equipped with special livestock stalls and air conditioners was provided by the U.S. Air Force. 

All but one hog survived the trip. A  Landrace hog died of heat prostration when one of the air conditioners failed during the stop at Guam. Upon arrival in Yokohama, the hogs were quarantined for two weeks to make certain they were not diseased or infected in any way.

And the story continues. Read more in the Aug. 17 issue of The Ogden Reporter.

Photo ID: This picture was taken at Yamanashi, Japan after the Iowa hogs had been taken out of quarantine. Roscoe Marsden (center, in dark coat), Albert Miller (holding Japanese child), and Kay Marsden. From the March 17, 1960 issue of The Ogden Reporter. 

                                    -Photo by Hans Goeppinger