By TAKEHIKO KAJITA
Kyodo News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee overwhelmingly passed a resolution on June 26 demanding an apology from Japan over the sexual exploitation of young women in the Asia-Pacific region by the Japanese military during World War II.

By SHOGO KAWAKITA and MIWA MURPHY
Kyodo News

NEW YORK — As a U.S. House committee passed a resolution on June 26 seeking Japan’s apology over the sexual exploitation of Asian women during World War II, some members of the Japanese Americans community expressed concern for the unpredictable impact such a resolution may have on U.S.-Japan relations.

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

On Tuesday, June 26, Tooru Nemoto was packing his belongings as he prepared to vacate his University of California at San Francisco office.

Over the years, the veteran professor’s intervention research projects, which target Asian Pacific Islanders at high risk for HIV, have been attacked by conservative politicians and advocacy groups, but ultimately it was the university who once staunchly defended him that has put an end to his work by choosing to end his appointment.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Trust for Historic Preservation on June 14 named the Minidoka Internment National Monument in Hunt, Jerome County, Idaho, to its "2007 List of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places."

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Senate committee on June 13 approved legislation authored by U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawai‘i) that would create a commission to determine the facts and circumstances involving the relocation, internment, and deportation of Latin Americans of Japanese descent during World War II and the late 1940s.

By AYA OIKAWA
Nichi Bei Times

After a five-week voyage, a 67-foot sailboat renamed as "Kanrinmaru of Heisei" sailed across the Pacific and finally docked in San Francisco on the evening of June 26.

By MIWA MURPHY and CRYSTAL WONG
Kyodo News

NEW YORK — Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki, director of the highly-acclaimed documentary "White Light/Black Rain" depicting the survivors of atomic bomb blasts in 1945, says Japan "clearly wants to move forward without looking back" on its past once atomic bomb survivors are gone.

NEW YORK (Kyodo) — Takeru Kobayashi, the defending champion of New York’s annual Independence Day hot dog-eating contest, intends to return to the competition this year despite rumors he may not be able to do so because of jaw pain, the New York Times reported June 27 in its online edition.

By ANNIE KIM TOMITA NOGUCHI
Nichi Bei Times Columnist

Believe it or not, right now you’re talking to a high school graduate. Yes, that’s right — I’m officially done with high school. On Friday, June 8, 2007 I walked across the stage of Memorial Auditorium in downtown Sacramento and was suddenly no longer subjugated to detention, tardy bells, required absence notes, or bathroom passes!

Note: The following letter is an excerpted response to Chizu Omori’s May 24, 2007 “Rabbit Ramblings” column entitled “An Eye-Opening Prison Visit.”

Dear Chizu,

The part where you said, “Our communities should not turn our backs on these men, many of them immigrants who came when very young and had to go through cultural assimilation under hostile conditions” brought me close to tears. I really felt you understood us.