By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

Less than a week before his court martial is scheduled to begin, major developments have occurred in the case of Ehren Watada, the 28-yaer-old Sansei army lieutenant from Hawai‘i who refused deployment to Iraq to participate in what he considers an illegal war of aggression.

By BILLIE LEE
Nichi Bei Times Correspondent

SAN JOSE -- People far and wide know of Aki's Bakery, which features wonderful cakes, pies, cookies and other baked goods. After 44 years the family-owned bakery -- comprised of 72-year-old matriarch Sue, the widow of the bakery's late founder Aki Toyoshima, and their children Randy, 50, Penny Tom, 49, and Peggy, 46 -- retired from the business as of Jan. 31, 2007.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawai‘i) on Jan. 24 introduced a bill to establish a commission that would determine the facts and circumstances involving the forced relocation, internment, and deportation of Latin Americans of Japanese descent during World War II and the late 1940s.

FRESNO -- The Pinedale Assembly Center Memorial Project Committee will hold a Day of Remembrance Dinner on Sunday, Feb. 18, with the groundbreaking for the memorial the following day. The dinner will be held at Pardini's Restaurant, 2257 W. Shaw Ave., Fresno with a 5:30 p.m. Social. Dinner and Program will begin at 6:30 p.m.

By ANSHO MAS UCHIMA and MINORU SHINMOTO

Brigadier General Edward M. Yoshimasu served in the 100th Battalion and the 442^nd Regimental Combat Team, fighting in Italy during World War II. After the war, he joined the Hawaiian National Guard and rose through the ranks to become the second Nikkei to attain the rank of brigadier general (Brigadier General Francis Shigeo Takemoto was the first Nikkei to attain the rank of general).

(Asahi) -- In Japan, More people than ever say they feel “inconvenienced” by a law that requires married couples to have the same surname, according to a Cabinet Office survey.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers critical of the government's stand on Japan’s wartime exploitation of Asian women for sexual servitude plans to visit the United States this spring, the LDP lawmakers said Jan. 26.

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

Japanese filmmaker Takeharu Watai was in Iraq when the U.S. Armed Forces dropped the first bombs in the March 2003 invasion. He remained there after the “Mission Accomplished” banner was unfurled and the occupation began. He was there filming ordinary citizens, living normally before the chaos of war tore into the country. And he captured it all on camera.

NEW YORK (Kyodo) -- The Toronto Blue Jays on Jan. 25 officially announced the acquisition of right-hander Tomo Ohka, finalizing a one-year, $1.5 million deal after the former Milwaukee Brewers player passed a physical.