History

The whole thing began with the shipwreck of the US ship The Chesebrough out of Bath, Maine off the coast of Tsugaru in Aomori Prefecture Japan on Oct. 31, 1889. It was a terrible storm and it drove the ship onto the shoals near the village of Shariki.

The ship was destroyed but many of the crew and passengers were saved and cared for by the villagers who sought help from the Aomori government.

For the next 100 years, the memory of this shipwreck was carried by the villagers and on the 100th anniversary, the Shariki Mayor decided to seek a sister city relationship with the City of Bath, Maine. They instituted the Chesebrough Cup swim meet that continues today.

After that relationship began, more people from both Maine and Aomori began to visit informally and other sister towns and school relationships began. The Casco Bay Japan Exchange Program began as the Namioka Junior High/Greely Middle School exchange in 1992 and a sister pledge of working toward world peace was signed. In 1994, Governors McKernon and Kimura signed the sister state agreement and since then, many businesses have also engaged in trade agreements.

In 2014, Greely Middle School decided that they wanted to continue to participate in the program but did not want to manage it. So, Casco Bay Japan Exchange Program was born. The program opened to Yarmouth middle schoolers in 2015. Frank H. Harrison Middle School became an official partner in September 2016.

At the same time, Namioka Junior High became part of the Aomori City school department and their program has expanded to include several other junior high schools as well. The program now can share this wonderful exchange with many more families in many communities here and in Japan.