GLENN MILLER 
BIRTHPLACE SOCIETY

The Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum is honored to have a branch of the Society in Japan.  The Japan Branch was formed in 1993 and is headquartered in Tokyo.

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Marvin Negley, GMBS President, shares his experience with the Japan Branch;

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GMBS has an interesting relationship with the Glenn Miller Society in Japan.  The Tamana Girls high school band came to the Glenn Miller Festival in 1990. As I remember there were 70 girls in the band. I wanted to thank them for coming so I asked and got permission to invite TGHS students to study in Clarinda.  To date, there have been 110 students that have participated in the exchange, 51 girls from Tamana GHS have come to Clarinda for a full school year and 59 girls from Clarinda have gone to Tamana and spent one month in school and one month on vacation with their host student. In 1996, the towns of Clarinda and Tamana became Sister Cities and 24 people from Clarinda went to Japan for the celebration. It was great! Following this in 1998, Clarinda HS and Tamana GHS became Sister Schools. Yes, one thing CAN LEAD to another!

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The city of Tamana used to be around 40,000 people but for efficiency they have incorporated surrounding towns and their current population is around 70,000 people. Clarinda is around 5,500 people so much smaller but our town is doing well and we have good schools, good industries and a new hospital complete with a helicopter to get people to places in a hurry.

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Over the last 30 years or so we have had many people go back and forth between our two cities; mayors, councilmen and women, teachers, students, residents and so on.  

 

For more history on Clarinda and Tamana, click HERE

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Visit the Japan Branch.