map by Ben Pease/www.peasepress.com

OBAMA, Japan (Kyodo) — U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama is getting some unexpected but enthusiastic support from people in a coastal city in central Japan named — Obama.

courtesy of the Bancroft Library

"The Great Unknown & the Unknown Great"
By GREG ROBINSON
Nichi Bei Times Contributor

(This is the second of two articles that trace unexplored aspects of the life of scholar and public figure Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa).

In 1939, S.I. Hayakawa was named professor of English at the Armour (now Illinois) Institute of Technology, and moved to Chicago. He meanwhile became attracted by Alfred Korzybski's ideas on general semantics.

Korzybski argued for systems of thinking and language that reflected the fluid nature of reality. Hayakawa was fascinated by the idea, as he put it, of "an examination of language as a preliminary to an examination of the problems stated in language."

Kyodo News photo

Asahi Shimbun

NAHA — Police arrested a U.S. Marine on Feb. 11 on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa Prefecture, drawing immediate outrage from the governor that is spreading across the prefecture.

The suspect, Staff Sgt. Tyrone Hadnott, 38, has denied he raped the junior high school student, saying he only tried to force her into his arms and kiss her, according to investigators.

Kyodo News photo

NAHA, Japan (Kyodo) — Protests continued to spread Wednesday in Okinawa Prefecture in the wake of the alleged rape by a U.S. Marine of a 14-year-old girl over the weekend, while Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima called for a fundamental review of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.

SF INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (Bay City News Serivce) — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 11 initiated enhanced security procedures for international travelers visiting the U.S. through San Francisco International Airport, the agency announced.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, uprooting 120,000 persons of Japanese descent — most of whom were American citizens — from their homes on the West Coast and sending them to 10 concentration camps from California to Arkansas where they lived during World War II.

On Aug. 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 after a federal commission's hearings resulted in findings of a violation of constitutional rights due to race prejudice, wartime hysteria and lack of political leadership. This brought the former internees an apology signed by President Reagan, individual payments of $20,000 and a public education fund.

Day of Remembrance programs are held across the country to re-examine our past history, share stories, encourage activism among the younger generations and to continue to fight for civil liberties. Upcoming programs include:

photo courtesy of the Australian Customs Service

By EMILY O'KEEFE
Kyodo News

SYDNEY — The Australian government released photos Feb. 7 showing a Japanese whaling ship dragging on board a slain mother whale and her calf, and Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the photos will strengthen any legal case that could be brought against the whalers in international courts.

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi said Feb. 8 that Japan will express its regret at the Australian government's release of photos showing Japanese whaling operations and at an Australian minister's comment on the photos.

courtesy of Cinema Libre Studio

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

Eric Byler is back with an unofficial follow-up to his breakout feature "Charlotte Sometimes," opening Friday in San Francisco Bay Area theaters. The film takes the same objective, minimalist approach to people and their relationships, but Byler pushes it into far darker territory than he has in his previous works.