MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — More than 235,000 mostly Japanese visitors poured through the gates here Thursday for Friendship Day 2005, featuring thrilling air show acts, aircraft exhibits, live entertainment and a wide variety of foods and beverages.
Excellent weather graced this year’s event, helping to draw the massive crowd. On the airfield tarmac and along the runway, thick crowds filled the area with no end in sight.
The number in attendance is just shy of a record set at Friendship Day 2000, estimated as about 267,000 visitors, officials said.
“It’s really gone very well this year,” John Pace, Friendship Day assistant project manager, said Thursday afternoon. “There have been no incidents of any bad behavior, sickness among visitors, people drinking too much … nothing that could detract from the event.”
Pace said the absence of such problems “is absolutely incredible when you consider these numbers” of people at the daylong festival.
The event Thursday marked the 45th year that Japanese guests entered the base to enjoy American hospitality.
“This year’s planning and all the hard work by nearly everybody here has been going on for 13 months. It’s great when you [see] all the coordination coming together,” Pace said.
About a 30-minute drive from Iwakuni is Kuga Town, home of Shoichi Mizumoto, who attends Friendship Day every year.
“This year, my nephew and his family from Kobe is here with us and we are all really enjoying this day,” he said, sitting on a lawn blanket with his family, enjoying ribs and corn on the cob.
“The Japanese Blue Impulse (aerobatics team) is a big attraction for us to come,” Mizumoto added. “And we also like the American food a lot; we’ll be back next year.”
Michito Eniki also came to Friendship Day from out of town, but only from about 50 miles along the highway in Hiroshima.
“This is my first time coming to the base Friendship Day,” he said. “So, I didn’t come because I was anxious to see any particular part of the air show, or a specific part of what they have here today.”
Eniki said he found the festival enjoyable and especially liked the atmosphere of friendship.
“It has also been fun taking our photos with the Marines out here who are very willing to do it. I found the close looks at the airplanes and helicopters on display as very interesting.
“I think I will be coming back next time,” he said.
Pace seemed ready to forge ahead with work on the next festival.
“In fact, we have started,” he added. “We’ve already begun the process of coordinating Friendship Day 2006.”
