Archive for June, 2012

Recent News

Lynne Yoshiko Nakasone receives the 2012 NEA National Heritage Fellowship

Lynne Yoshiko Nakasone receives the 2012 NEA National Heritage Fellowship

June 22, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that Lynne Yoshiko Nakasone has received the 2012 NEA National Heritage Fellowship, which is the American equivalent to being designated as a living national treasure in Japan. Seventy-nine year-old Ryukyu dance performer, Nakasone, who is from Naha and currently lives in Hawaii, is the founder of the Hoge Ryu Hana Nizi no Kai Nakasone Dance Academy. Nakasone is the second recipient of the fellowship from Okinawa,...

 

Fourth-generation Okinawan descendant from Hawaii Branda Nomura meets her relatives in Yomitan

Fourth-generation Okinawan descendant from Hawaii Branda Nomura meets her relatives in Yomitan

June 17, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

On June 13, 41 year-old high school teacher from Hawaii, Brenda Nomura, visited Okinawa on the high school student exchange program “Okinawa Prefectural Government Junior Study Tour,” which is run by the Hawaii United Okinawa Association and the Okinawa...

Elementary school pupils listen to song written by Japanese POWs during the Battle of Okinawa

Elementary school pupils listen to song written by Japanese POWs during the Battle of Okinawa

June 19, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

On June 15, at Kin Municipal Kagei Elementary School, which used to be the Yaka Prison Camp, where Japanese prisoners of war were accommodated during the Battle of Okinawa, the Yakabushi song written by the POWs was performed at a gathering held for peace...

Ikemajima to accept 5000 homestay students

Ikemajima to accept 5000 homestay students

June 19, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

On Ikemajima, which is located to the north of Miyakojima in Okinawa Prefecture, local people are expanding the scope of their homestay business so they can accept students on school trips into the houses of fishermen and farmers. According to the Miyakojima Tourist...

Okinawan Women’s Association of Peru holds respect-for-the-aged ceremony for 600 people

Okinawan Women’s Association of Peru holds respect-for-the-aged ceremony for 600 people

June 18, 2012 Mitsuhiro Akamine, correspondent of Ryukyu Shimpo

In the afternoon of June 2, at the Junji Nishime Kenjin-Kai Hall in Lima, Peru, the Association for Okinawan Women of Peru held its annual respect-for-the-aged ceremony, to which it invited almost 600 elderly people over...

Marine Corps to operate Osprey aircraft all over Okinawa

Marine Corps to operate Osprey aircraft all over Okinawa

June 14, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

On May 13, the Ministry of Defense submitted a report put together by the U.S. Marine Corps entitled, “Final Environmental Review for Basing the MV-22 aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma and Operating in Japan,” to the Okinawa Prefectural...

Social work school course on the Battle of Okinawa

Social work school course on the Battle of Okinawa

June 17, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

On June 14 at the Kitanakagusuku Village Central Community Center, the College of Social Work of Oba School delivered a lecture on the Battle of Okinawa. Toshie Asato, co-leader of the Okinawa Umanchu Association, Okinawa branch of the Article 9 Association, who...

Tsushima-Maru survivor delivers lecture to elementary school pupils

Tsushima-Maru survivor delivers lecture to elementary school pupils

June 18, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

On June 12 at Nago Municipal Kube Elementary School, 79 year-old Keiko Taira spoke to a group of elementary school pupils about her experience as a survivor from the Tsushima-Maru, an unmarked Japanese passenger-cargo ship carrying hundreds of evacuated school children...

Protest rally held in Ginowan against deployment of the Osprey to Futenma Air Station

Protest rally held in Ginowan against deployment of the Osprey to Futenma Air Station

June 17, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

From 2:00pm on June 17 at the Ginowan Outdoor Theater, a rally was held to protest against the deployment of the MV-22 Osprey vertical take-off and landing transport aircraft to the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and against the base becoming a permanent...

Students of Chubu Agricultural High School produce okra noodles using sub-standard product

Students of Chubu Agricultural High School produce okra noodles using sub-standard product

June 13, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

Management of the Castle Highlander, a general-purpose wedding hall in Tengan, Uruma, have decided to offer on their lunch menu once a month okra noodles that Chubu Agricultural High School students have created using imperfect okra. Okra is a local product, and...

Tonaki Island in the middle of its harvest of glutinous millet

Tonaki Island in the middle of its harvest of glutinous millet

June 12, 2012 Toshihisa Higa, correspondent of Ryukyu Shimpo

On Tonaki Island, glutinous millet which had seeds sown during Usui, the second term in the East Asian lunisolar calendar, is now ready for harvest, so local farmers are busy harvesting the crops during sunny spells in the...