Archive for August, 2011

Recent News

Three hundred fifty people attend memorial service for victims of Tsushima-Maru tragedy

Three hundred fifty people attend memorial service for victims of Tsushima-Maru tragedy

August 23, 2011 Ryukyu Shimpo

The 2011 memorial service for the victims of the sinking of the Tsushima-Maru, a tragedy in 1944 in which the submarine USS Bowfin sank an unmarked Japanese passenger-cargo ship carrying hundreds of schoolchildren, was held at the Kozakura-no-To monument in Wakasa, Naha City on August 22. The memorial service was organized by the Tsushima-Maru Memorial Foundation.
About 350 survivors and bereaved family members attended the service, in which they prayed...

 

National Police Agency – 15 U.S. military deserters from bases in Okinawa

August 19, 2011 Ryukyu Shimpo

United States military officials have reported to their Japanese counterparts that the number of deserters from U.S. military bases in Japan has increased to 47, thirteen of whom have still not yet been located since both countries agreed on May 2008 to arrest...

Rock band HY and RYUKYUKOKU MATSURI DAIKO take part in the Okinawa Zento Eisa Festival

Rock band HY and <em>RYUKYUKOKU MATSURI DAIKO</em> take part in the Okinawa Zento Eisa Festival

August 19, 2011 Ryota Shimabukuro of Ryukyu Shimpo

Japanese rock band HY, whose members are all from Okinawa, and RYUKYUKOKU MATSURI DAIKO (Ryukyu Kingdom Festival Drums), an international dance and drum performance troupe, will perform together at the 56th Okinawa Zento Eisa Festival...

Climax of the Okinawa Zento Eisa Festival

Climax of the Okinawa Zento Eisa Festival

August 22, 2011 Ryukyu Shimpo

On August 21, 15 groups took part in the final day of the 56th Okinawa Zento Eisa Festival which was organized by the 56th Okinawa Zento Eisa Festival Executive Committee, comprising representatives from Okinawa City, the Ryukyu Shimpo, Okinawa Television Broadcasting,...

Archival papers suggests U.S. military carried out nuclear weapon drill in Okinawa during 1960s

August 18, 2011 by Kenyu Uchima and Wakako Oshiro of Ryukyu Shimpo

Papers of the United States National Archives recently revealed that during the 1960s, the period of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military carried out training with small nuclear weapons at Camp Hague, located in what was then...

Iejima-rum surges in popularity to enjoy large sales

Iejima-rum surges in popularity to enjoy large sales

August 18, 2011 Yukihito Kinjo, correspondent of Ryukyu Shimpo

Sales of Ie-rum Santa Maria made from sugar cane grown on Iejima that started in July are going well.
Very little stock remains in the shop and the factory and for Internet orders.

Many shoppers who visited the Ie Bussan...

Documentary movie set in Miyako Islands wins prize at Locarno International Film Festival

Documentary movie set in Miyako Islands wins prize at Locarno International Film Festival

August 17, 2011 Ryukyu Shimpo

Sketches of Myahk (directed by Koichi Onishi), a documentary movie focusing on the spiritual songs passed on through the ages in the Miyako Islands was awarded Special Mention of the Critics Week Jury 2011, a second Grand Prize in the category of Critics’...

Repaired fishing vessels donated to areas stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake

Repaired fishing vessels donated to areas stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake

August 16, 2011 Ryukyu Shimpo

Miyako City of Iwate Prefecture suffered extensive damage in the Great East Japan Earthquake. Many fishing vessels were swept away or hurled up onto land by the tsunami.
Fishermen of the Katsuren Fishermen’s Cooperative who harvest mozuku,...

Seven years since U.S. helicopter crashed onto Okinawa International University

Seven years since U.S. helicopter crashed onto Okinawa International University

August 13, 2011 compiled from reports of Ryukyu Shimpo

A rally seeking to stop all aircraft from taking off from the United States Marine Corps Air Station Futenma was held at Okinawa International University in Ginowan City on August 13, exactly seven years since a U.S. helicopter crashed...

Unke-ceremony to celebrate the return of ancestral spirits

<em>Unke</em>-ceremony to celebrate the return of ancestral spirits

August 13, Ryukyu Shimpo

On August 12, the first day of Okinawa’s Obon called Unke, families who have family altars celebrated the return of their ancestral spirits with offerings of bananas and pineapples.
At the house of 74-year-old Kazuko Tokumoto, who resides in Komesu,...

Veteran alleges that U.S. military buried Agent Orange in Chatan

Veteran alleges that U.S. military buried Agent Orange in Chatan

August 14, 2011 Ryukyu Shimpo

A former member of the U.S. military, a 61 year-old veteran who was stationed on Okinawa and now lives in United States, has said that in 1969 the U.S. military buried several dozen 55-gallon (208-liter) drums containing dioxin defoliant along the sea of Chatan...