Supervising the children during “Sports Month” in celebration of Independence Day.
Yoshikada Wada Sensei, Instructor of Aikido in East Timor since 2005 sent the following reports on current activities in East Timor since Homma Kancho’s last visit in February, 2008.
June 13th, 2008
May 20th was Independence Day in East Timor. During the month of May, many sports competitions and demonstrations were held to celebrate. Our Aikido students also wanted to put on a demonstration for this national celebration and on June 1st, the demonstration was held. As it was a Sunday, not too many spectators came, so the demonstration turned into a regular practice. The Minister of Sports and Education and personnel from the Japanese Embassy did attend, which was good exposure for our Aikido dojo.
This year’s Independence Day demonstration was performed by local Timor residents, but last year, Sung Ju-Hwan and Ziad Ysuf Abuamer both UNPOL officers stationed in East Timor at the time performed the demonstration along with East Timor students. The Japanese Embassy personnel commented that compared to last years demonstration, the East Timor local students show much improvement in their practice.
June 27th, 2008
A few days ago, an honorary peace ambassador from Unicef, Mr. Jackie Chan came to visit east Timor. Mr. Chan is a popular action movie star and attracted a lot of attention in East Timor. Many young people came to watch him perform. The theme of his demonstration was “Using Martial Arts for Peace. Fighting only leads to more fighting. Don’t fight. I want to see peace through the Martial Arts, not fighting.”
Every time, Mr. Wada leads by example.
Mr. Wada has been part of the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) office staff in East Timor for the past four years. He and his wife have lived through many hard times and seen many struggles in East Timor. Both Mr. Wada and his wife have made many sacrifices and given a lot of effort to assist the people of East Timor.
JICA Headquarters has ordered Mr. Wada to return to Japan this summer. For all that Mr. Wada has given to the people of East Timor this will be a great loss for this new and struggling democracy. I hope that Mr. Wada will be able to continue his support and keep the relationships he has built in East Timor.
Thank you very much for all of your efforts. You made a difference in this land.
Written by
Nippon Kan Headquarters
Gaku Homma
Nippon Kan Kancho