Remembering Rutherford, Daily News Journal, January 25, 2015, Greg Tucker
In the early 1970s, Tennessee Gov. Ray Blanton initiated an effort that dramatically changed the environment, economy and demographics of Rutherford County. This six-year team project involved leadership at many levels. It finally succeeded thanks to a personal business relationship.
Hoping to attract more international investment to Tennessee, the Blanton administration invited the entire membership of the United Nations to hold a meeting in Tennessee in 1976, the year of the U.S. Bicentennial. To organize and chair the “United Nations Visits Tennessee” program, Blanton appointed Edward G. Nelson, a local bank president known for his international business connections and success.
Enlisting the help of Henry Kissinger, President Gerald Ford and Vanderbilt University, Nelson and his committee successfully persuaded UN General Secretary Kurt Waldheim and the representatives of every member nation to convene the first UN session away from its New York headquarters.
Preliminary discussions emphasized not only the Bicentennial date for the historic meeting, but also the historic role of Tennessee native Cordell
After his investiture and induction into the “Order of the Rising Sun” by the emperor of Japan, Akihito, Edward G. Nelson, second from left, a key figure in bringing Nissan to Rutherford County, was honored at a 2008 reception at Cheekwood in Nashville. Among the reception guests were Nelson’s goddaughter Minh-Triet Tucker, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, left, and Greg Tucker.
Hull, the acknowledged “father of the United Nations.”
The June 1976 session concluded with a luncheon in Centennial Park in Nashville that the governor hosted. A historical marker in the park today memorializes the event. Learning that Japanese auto giant Nissan was considering construction of a major U. S. facility, the UN celebration was followed by a business-recruiting effort focused on Japan where Nelson had numerous business and personal contacts.
A fourth-generation Nashville banker, Nelson’s ties to Japan began in the military.
In 1952 I joined the Army and was assigned to the intelligence service,” explained Nelson in a 2009 interview. Trained in Japanese culture and language, Nelson was detailed to the island nation during the Korean War.
“My job was to identify in-country communist operatives and to track their covert activity. I was also charged with monitoring the development of the emerging Japanese financial infrastructure and observing how U.S. funds were being applied.” (Total U. S. assistance to the Japanese financial sector from 1946 through 1952 was approximately $15.2 billion in grants and loans.) Fluent in both the spoken and written language, Nelson’s “spy” work relied largely on conversations, media reports and other readily accessible sources. There were, however, some “cloak and- dagger” moments.
“I recall one late-night rendezvous with an individual identified to me only by the code name CI-234. We met on a pier, and he gave me the names of the west Japanese communist leadership. I assumed that my contact was some kind of double agent,” recalled Nelson.
A decade later, as a Commerce Union vice president, Nelson continued his relationship with the Japanese financial leadership, making numerous social and business visits. He recalled assisting the leading Japanese investment bank in 1970 with establishment of their first office in the United States in Atlanta.
“This was several years before we began discussions with Nissan,” noted Nelson.
In May 1978, the results of Nelson’s quiet diplomacy on behalf of Tennessee and the Blanton administration got its first headlines. A team of Nissan representatives spent a week in Tennessee considering possible sites for a new auto assembly plant. On May 9 Blanton hosted a reception at the Governor’s Mansion, followed by a dinner at the Opryland Hotel. Nelson served informally as friend and interpreter.
As Rutherford County and Smyrna came into focus as a possible site, the local leadership, led by Smyrna Mayor Sam Ridley, County Executive Ben Hall McFarlin, the county’s legislative delegation, County Attorney William Sellers and a host of other local boosters, made every conceivable effort to gain favor for the local site.
These efforts were aggressively supported and extended by the new administration of Gov. Lamar Alexander.
A year later, the company advised that the site selection had been narrowed to a location near Smyrna and two sites in central Georgia. In June 1980 Nelson was again in Japan visiting with Nissan officials and with his contacts in the investment bank that handled most of the Nissan financing.
“Despite their U.S. business base in Atlanta, which I had helped establish, the investment bankers were persuaded that Tennessee should be the choice,” remembered Nelson.
On Oct. 30, 1980, Nissan announced that the new plant was going to be built in Tennessee. Smyrna was the site. When the news was announced to a crowd of Rutherford County representatives gathered in the office of the county attorney, there was loud cheering and Mayor Ridley reportedly shouted: “We’re all gonna be rich!”
Groundbreaking took place on Feb. 3, 1981. On the night before the groundbreaking, Nelson hosted a dinner at his Nashville home for Nissan representatives and a Tennessee delegation of state and local representatives.
Despite picketing and protests from the United Auto Workers (Nissan was a strictly non-union manufacturer), the groundbreaking was celebrated with Gov. Alexander and Marvin Runyon, Nissan Motor Manufacturing USA President, on center stage.
Curiously, a 127-page souvenir book “presented to employees and friends of the company on the occasion of the formal dedication” of the new plant on Oct. 21, 1983, fails to acknowledge the significant role of Gov. Blanton and the international influence of Ed Nelson. See John Egerton, “Nissan in Tennessee,” (1983). In January 2008 a Japanese consulate was moved to Nashville due in large part to efforts by Nelson. (Nelson had previously served as honorary consul general for Japan in Tennessee.) In April 2008 the Japanese government awarded Nelson its highest civilian honor — the “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.”
The honor was bestowed on Nelson, retired chairman and president of Commerce Union Bank and chairman of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust, “for his work in U.S.-Japanese relations.”
Reporting on the recognition, a Nashville business publication noted that Nelson was a “key figure in bringing Nissan to Tennessee.” See Nashville Post (April 28, 2008).