Monthly Archives: February 2008

Marine accused of rape in Okinawa released from custody

Posted on February 29, 2008 | Leave a comment

According to this article by Martin Fackler in the International Herald Tribune, the U.S. Marine accused of raping a 14-year-old Okinawan girl has been released from police custody after the girl dropped her accusations.

38-year-old Staff Seargent Tyrone Luther Hadnott is back in Marine custody after Japanese prosecutors dropped the charges. It appears the girl wants to move on and avoid the stress caused by a legal battle.

Whether or not this will satisfy Okinawan citizens is another question. The rape case has been a source of anger among Okinawans and brought back bad memories of the highly publicized 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three American servicemen. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called the accused crime “unforgivable,” while many Okinawans have questioned the presence of 40,000 American servicemen. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed deep regret over the incident and said that justice would be sought.

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Posted in Japan news

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Six decades later, internees receive college degrees

Posted on February 28, 2008 | Leave a comment

If you happened to read Kevin Kawamoto’s internment piece on the plight of undergraduate AJAs in our current issue, this story might interest you.

According to Molly Rosbach of the University of Washington’s Daily, UW is honoring 440 Japanese Americans – many of them near the age of 90 – who were removed from the university and sent to internment camps across the United States in 1942. Several of the students were one course shy of completing their degree requirements when they left the school.

Interestingly enough, the octogenarians initially did not want the honor, but they agreed in the name of awareness:

[T]he students themselves don’t want this honor — they would be the first to say that there were many others who deserved it more. But their desire to get the story out there is what has convinced many that the ceremony is necessary.

For Prof. Gail Nomura, who labored for several years to get the honorary degrees approved, the ceremony is long overdue:

“It’s not making a statement or anything,” she said. “It’s just the right thing to do. We want them back as official alumni of the UW. They should be home.”

UW-exhibit

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Posted in Education, Japanese American internment, Japanese Americans

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AJA fishing club breaking down racial barriers

Posted on February 28, 2008 | 1 Comment

If you live in the Seattle area, like to fish and have an appreciation for trash talking, you might want to check out the Tengu Club of Seattle.

The club – named after the Japanese mythological warrior with a long nose and a tendency to brag – was founded by a group of Japanese Americans in 1946 shortly after they were released from internment camps. AJAs weren’t allowed in mainstream fishing tournaments so, in association with Tengu, they formed their own event called the Blackmouth Salmon Derby. Over six decades later, the club and the tournament, which runs from 10 to 13 Sundays in October to December, is still going strong.

And even though the original Tengu AJAs were originally discriminated against due to their race, ethnicity has never been an issue for the club. Masaro Tahara says, in this article by Mike Lewis in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “We talk about ethnicity, about what we eat, about who can fish the best.”

tengu

Photo: Japanese tengu

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Posted in Japanese Americans

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E. coli shuts down Sekiya’s

Posted on February 27, 2008 | Leave a comment

It seems like E. coli is everywhere. First it was in spinach, then it was in beef, now it’s in Sekiya’s Restaurant in Kaimuki.

According to the Honolulu Advertiser, the longtime Japanese eatery is shutting down after the worst outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 in the state’s history.”

Hopefully it won’t be long before the restaurant meets health standards and the seven individuals affected by the bacteria are back to normal.

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Posted in Food

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UH pitcher Harrison Kuroda makes triumphant return to the mound

Posted on February 26, 2008 | Leave a comment

Harrison Kuroda has played 4 seasons for the Rainbows; in those 4 years, he’s had nearly as many season-ending shoulder injuries (2) as he’s had career starts for UH (3).

But the former ILH Player of the Year in 2004 is finally healthy, as told in this story by the Honolulu Advertiser’s Stacy Kaneshiro, and back to what he does best: pitching.

UH Baseball
Just goes to show you that patience is as important as persistence in sports, especially where injuries are concerned. Job well done, Harrison.

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Posted in Sports

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Daniel Inouye apologizes for Obama comments

Posted on February 26, 2008 | Leave a comment

According to this article by Derrick DePledge in the Honolulu Advertiser, U.S. Daniel K. Inouye has written an apology letter to Punahou School for comments he made about U.S. Sen. and Punahou alumnus Barrack Obama.

Sen. Inouye, a superdelegate who is supporting U.S. Hillary Clinton, made these comments to the Advertiser about Sen. Obama before the Hawai`i Democratic caucuses last week:

“If you ask the people in Hawai’i what they know about Barack Obama, I think the honest answer is, ‘Very little.’ He went to school in Hawai’i but he went to Punahou, and that was not a school for the impoverished.

I don’t hold it against anyone who is a Punahou grad. It’s a fine school. I would say one of the finest in the United States. But to suggest that Punahou maybe set his life plan in place, I find it very interesting.”

Obama responded to those comments in an interview with KITV news:”Shame on Danny for trying to pull that stunt. I went to Punahou on a scholarship. I was raised by a single mom and my grandmother.”

Punahou’s president James Scott is planning on meeting with Inouye next week in Washington, D.C.

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Posted in Politics

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Internment camps: To preserve or not to preserve?

Posted on February 25, 2008 | Leave a comment

The opinion of virtually everyone is that Japanese internment camps were just flat out wrong. Presidents who followed Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed Executive Order 9066, have publicly labeled the internment decision unnecessary and unjust. People of all ethnicities are ashamed that the camps ever existed. And yet, there is a movement to preserve the camps into perpetuity. Check out what is going on in this story by Justin Ewers in US News & World Report.

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Posted in Japanese American internment

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