Kyoko Hasegawa, community relations specialist for 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs at Misawa Air Base, Japan. (Jennifer H. Svan / Stars and Stripes)
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — If a U.S. servicemember assigned to Misawa dumps his garbage at the wrong spot or crashes into a traffic pole off base, Kyoko Hasegawa knows she’ll hear about it.
As the community relations specialist for the 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs office, Hasegawa in effect is the liaison between two nations living side-by-side in northern Japan. The relationship between the local and military communities generally has been harmonious but, at times, clashes, issues and disagreements have occurred that, left unresolved, could sour the long-standing friendship.
Hasegawa works to prevent that. She fields local government complaints and collaborates with base agencies and senior leaders to find solutions. She interprets for top base officials when they meet and mingle with Japanese leaders and advises them on cultural etiquette, from how to hold chopsticks to bowing to the Japanese flag on stage. She wants nothing to be lost in translation.
“My job is to ensure that the friendship stays … between the base and local community,” Hasegawa said.
The Air Force has shown it believes she’s succeeding: After 11 years on the job, Hasegawa recently won the Ceferina T. Yepez award for outstanding host-nation employee, meaning she’s recognized as best in the Air Force at what she does.
Ever the diplomat, Hasegawa said she couldn’t achieve success without support from her colleagues.
“I think this award should be for everyone in the Misawa community,” she said. “I’m just a part of it. Everybody really works hard” to maintain good relations with local officials and residents.
Hasegawa’s supervisor, wing spokesman Capt. John Haynes, said Hasegawa is known base and communitywide “for being the person to go to when you need to get things done from a community relations standpoint.”
Born in Hokkaido, Hasegawa studied English in college. She admits, however, that although she could read and speak the language when she began working for the wing, military acronyms and terminology took time to absorb.
“I’m still learning,” she said. “It’s changing also; rules are changing, polices are updated, sometimes every day. You have to keep reading, keep studying.”
Every year, she said, she looks forward to helping the wing commander with friendship, social and sports events for base, city, local government and Japan Air Self-Defense Force leaders.
But much of her job deals with finding solutions. To that end, she said, the base has had many successes in resolving Japanese residents’ concerns.
When Kamakita residents complained about traffic congestion after the base reopened a gate next to their town for commercial vehicles, base and local government officials built the Apple Gate and access road to divert heavy truck traffic away from the village.
But then local farmers balked at trucks using their quiet, rural side road — so the base passed out fliers, telling commercial drivers to keep to the main road.
“Sometimes it takes time to come up with a solution,” Hasegawa said. “It’s difficult to make everybody happy but the bottom line is we work hard so that people feel Misawa is a great place to live and work."
