SAN JOSE (Bay City News Service) — San Jose city officials and residents welcomed a delegation of visitors from San Jose’s sister city, Okayama, Japan, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the joining of the two cities.

By ALEC YOSHIO MacDONALD
Nichi Bei Times Contributor

When he came to San Francisco, he made sports history. When he left for Japan, he did it again. Eventually, he would become a legend for his athletic exploits in both places � but Wally Yonamine still hasn’t forgotten his Hawaiian roots.

He’s not the only one.

Nichi Bei Times Report

During World War II, he was among 120,000 persons of Japanese descent shoved into cramped living quarters and incarcerated behind barbed wire fences. Years later as a professor at one of the country’s leading institutions of higher learning, he worked to build bridges across oceans and beyond borders.

For his contribution “to the promotion of scholarship and academic exchange” between Japan and the United States, Stanford University political science Professor Daniel Iwao Okimoto will be awarded a kunsho, or medal of honor from the Japanese government.

Applications for the 2007 Kay Okamoto Volunteer Award are now available from the San Francisco chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. This award, established by the family and friends of the late Mrs. Kay Okamoto, offers $1,000 to a nonprofit organization of the recipient’s choice.

WASHINGTON (Asahi) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 26 offered a more explicit apology to “comfort women” and expressed regret at the way his previous comments on the issue had been handled, Japanese officials said.

By KOTA MORIKAWA
Nichi Bei Times

A group of Japanese men and women in white cooking uniform mixed flours and water, with their hands shaped like claws, while others rolled the dough with a three foot long roller. Another man cut the flattened dough into strips one to two-millimeters wide and six inches long.

By YOHEI GOTO
Asahi Shimbun

SAKAI, Osaka Prefecture — It seems like a dream come true for these six teenage girls.

Oreskaband, an all-girl Japanese ska band whose members have all just graduated from their high schools, is set to star in a major Hollywood production.

By DREW MORITA
Nichi Bei Times

The current focus of the boxing world is on the Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. fight on Saturday, May 5 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. However, this is also the perfect time to highlight four Japanese boxers who also happen to be world champions.

By ANNIE KIM TOMITA NOGUCHI
Nichi Bei Times Columnist

The smoke has cleared, the chips have fallen where they may, the cookie has crumbled, and I am left drooling over a computer screen at 10 p.m. I’m a second semester senior and to be honest the only thing I really want to be doing at 10 p.m. is either snoring or eating chili fries with my friends. But this is a big moment, I’m pretty sure. Even though I did forget about it for a day, which leads to my snoring/chili fry time being taken away.