see JAPANESE PROGRAM on

What followed was not entirely clear, but resulted in the only remaining Japanese language program in the Renton School District reportedly being put on the chopping block, only to be reinstated after students, parents, and Japanese American groups raised an outcry.

The details that emerged appear to outline a story of the murkiness and frustrations surrounding school districts, as they seek to reestablish themselves after coming out of years of dark times with remote learning and COVID policies.

Caudle did not respond to multiple emails for this story, nor did the school board, the superintendent, or the deputy superintendent.

In the end, a spokesperson for the district said that it was only a “rumor” that the program was going to be cut.

“The Japanese language program will continue. There is no plan now or in the future to cut the program,” said Randy Matheson, Executive Director Community Relations, Renton School District.

A DIFFERENT HISTORY

According to Weir, who has taught Japanese for 14 years at Lindbergh, Caudle told her he was planning to cut it and replace it with American Sign Language (ASL), despite the fact that more students had shown interest in Japanese per teacher than any other language course.

Matheson said Caudle was only making an “inquiry” about ASL because it would allow students “to earn credit for two programs at the same time.”

He did not offer clarification for which programs. Students are required to complete two years of foreign language study in high school in Washington state.

According to Weir, however, after Caudle told her about the program cancellation, she asked him why.

Weir had initially planned to retire before the pandemic, but stayed on to usher the program through hard times and make sure it continued as it was as popular as it had always been—so that it would be in good shape for a new teacher to take over.

As of this month, 190 students had expressed a desire to take one of the courses she teaches, putting it above French, with 109 students, and Spanish with a total of 350 students—175 for each of two teachers.

“It was more than a full-time job,” said Weir.

So when she told Human Resources, during Spring Break—the first week of April— that she was planning to retire the following year, she expected the sheer number of interested students, not to mention the ongoing popularity of the program, to ensure its survival.

The following Monday, she was meeting with the assistant principal about the course.

“The assistant principal said, ‘Congratulations, Hiromi, on your retirement,’ and then she told me the principal wanted to know if I had any interest in coming back to teach part-time next year,” said Weir.

The offer being presented was to help those students who had finished their first year of Japanese complete their second year. There would be no new students, and the entire program would be dropped, said Weir.

“When I saw him the next day, I asked him, ‘How can you drop my program?’ And he said, ‘I don’t have to tell you that,’” she said.

In her previous dealings with Caudle, who had joined the school two years earlier, she had found it necessary to have union representation and vowed never to meet with him alone.

Upon hearing that her program was going to be canceled, Weir said she was shocked and did not know what to do. But she eventually reached out to a number of the organizations that regularly provided support to the school districts for Japanese language classes, such as the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington (JASSW), the Japanese Consulate, and the Washington Association of Teachers of Japanese (WATJ).

COMMUNITY REACTION

Dale Watanabe, executive director at JASSW, said the loss of the course would have prevented the restoration of a language and culture which the forces of assimilation stripped away.

“Many of our members are either Japanese companies doing business in Washington or American companies who do business in Japan. Language skills broaden job opportunities. Many Japanese Americans of my generation don’t speak Japanese, but wish we did. Lindbergh should be treasuring the very popular Japanese language program that Hiromi Sensei built,” he said.

One of his daughters was able to study Japanese in Tacoma, while the other in another school district took French because it wasn’t offered.

Chris Johnson, chair of the Renton-Nishiwaki Sister City Association, said Renton has a 50year history of cultural exchanges with Japan.

“The language programs in our middle and high school curriculums have prepared thousands of students for life in the global community in which we now live,” he said in an email. “The loss of a language program like this would seriously impact our future ability to work with Japan, who is one of Washington state’s largest trade partners.”

Hiromi Sensei

STUDENTS

It was only when her former students heard about the possible ending of the program that the real change apparently took place.

One former student, Aleyna Yamaguchi, 29, organized a petition and wrote letters to the board, the superintendent, and the deputy superintendent, and encouraged others to do so. Other students spoke out forcefully for this article, reacting with shock and sadness to the apparent end of a beloved program that had changed their lives (as with the community groups, they were interviewed before Renton announced the program would continue).

It is not clear if their outcry, along with Yamaguchi’s campaign, and the dismay of parents, led to a reinstatement of the program.

But their collective reactions to the possible cut gave voice to the profound impact a single language program and a single teacher can have on a whole generation of students.

For Yamaguchi, who took Japanese from Weir a decade ago, gaining fluency has allowed her to communicate with her 92-year-old grandmother, who has reverted to speaking almost entirely Japanese since developing Alzheimer’s.

On a recent weekend afternoon, Yamaguchi talked with the whitehaired older woman for an hour, holding a scrapbook of photos of her trip to Japan with Weir and offering the old woman treats.

Other students credit the program, and Weir’s nurturing, with their career successes.

Orm Wei, 28, was inspired by Weir to apply to the University of Nagoya, which he chose over the University of Washington, and where he studied mechanical engineering. He now does extreme weather and emissions testing design for the automobile industry.

“During the time I was there, it was very mundane, everything had to be done in a certain way,” he said. “I felt, in her class, things opened up.”

Jenna Louie, 24, was nominated by Weir to visit Japan on a scholarship and take part in the rebuilding of the Tohoku region after the earthquake and tsunami that wiped the area out in 2011.

In Japan, she was exposed to a woodworker who lost his children in the flooding that followed. As part of his return to life, he built a playground called “the rainbow bridge.”

Louie was so inspired that she studied civil engineering at the University of Washington (UW) and then went to graduate school in structural engineering at UC Berkeley. She now works at a company that builds schools, offices, residences, and commercial structures.

Other students posted comments at the bottom of the petition saying they owed careers at Amazon or as a Japanese interpreter to Weir’s teaching.

Weir herself said that some of her students had gone on to work at such companies as Honda USA, Uwajimaya, and even Genki Sushi. Some had used their Japanese in military careers in Japan and some proselytizing.

“And also a couple of kids came back with their wives to meet me,” she said.

But in the handful of interviews conducted, and during a classroom observation, it was clear that it was much more than language skills that Weir had imparted.

“She has made me a better human being,” said Yamaguchi. “She was like a second mother to us, really caring about our whole lives.”

Said Louie, “She was an exception—I do not know any other teacher in high school where everyone loved her.”

Yamaguchi also said there was something about the Japanese language and culture itself that encourages different ways of being for young people.

“It’s a culture where listening to others is so important, as well as understanding things from other people,” she said.

A TREND?

The WATJ said there has been a decrease of Japanese language courses in this state.

“It is true that there appears to be a recent trend in more Japanese language programs being canceled than added in western Washington, where most WATJ member teachers reside and teach. It is also true that nationally, numbers of Japanese language programs and students appear to be rising,” said Kei Tsukamaki, WATJ President, in an email.

However, Tsukamaki said, “As of my most recent communication, it is my understanding that the Japanese language program at Lindbergh High School will not be discontinued at this time.”

For her part, Weir pointed out multiple schools in the area that have done away with Japanese language programs.

But both she and the community organizations say it’s not for lack of teachers.

“I know that there are a number of younger, qualified Japanese teachers who can succeed her when she retires,” said Watanabe.

One reason for the reduction in Japanese programs, Weir speculates, is related to the Chinese government’s willingness to fund Chinese language classes over the past decade.

In her school, it is still not entirely clear what happened.

The district did not respond to questions about budget cuts, school politics, or personal preferences on the part of the principal.

Nor is Weir sure that the current assurances can be counted on long-term.

She hopes to have a oneon-one conversation with the superintendent. 

To view the petition to save the program, go to: https://www. change.org/p/save-lindbergh-sjapanese-language-program

Mahlon can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

Cambodia cuts quarantine for unvaccinated visitors to 7 days

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia has reduced the required quarantine period from two weeks to one for arriving travelers who are not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, acting after recording consistently low numbers of new infections in recent days.

The Health Ministry also said that travelers arriving by air who have not been fully vaccinated must take a rapid antigen test on the last day of their quarantine. Arrivals by land—mostly Cambodian workers in neighboring countries— are required to take rapid antigen tests on arrival as well as on the last day of quarantine.

Cambodia had already opened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers on Nov. 15 in an effort to revitalize its tourism-reliant economy.

The changes announced on April 21 come about a month after another easing of pandemic-related restrictions for visitors from abroad, including the dropping of mandatory COVID-19 tests for travelers who have been vaccinated. Visas on arrival were also restored last month .

Before the pandemic, Cambodia had developed its tourism industry into an important source of revenue, and in 2019 welcomed a record 6.61 million foreign tourists who spent about $5.31 billion, just under 20% of the county's gross national product, according to Tourism Ministry statistics.

The number of tourist arrivals in 2020 plunged to 1.31 million, accounting for $1.12 billion in revenue, or just over 4% of GNP. Tourist arrivals last year declined even further to 196,495, accounting for just $184 million in revenue.

About 92% of Cambodia's almost 17 million people have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination. 

Yoshinoya beef bowl chain executive fired over sexist remark

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Masaaki Ito

TOKYO (AP) — A popular Japanese beef bowl chain, Yoshinoya Holdings Co., has fired an executive over sexist remarks he made about a marketing strategy aiming to get young women “hooked” on its products as though turning “virgins into drug addicts.”

Masaaki Ito, a managing director at Yoshinoya, known for its “gyudon” beefover-rice dish, made the inflammatory remarks at a marketing lecture at Tokyo’s Waseda University on April 17.

Gender disparity runs deep in Japan, where only a small percentage of women hold decision-making positions in business, academia and politics.

The comments made by a rising marketing strategist that only surfaced at a seminar outside the company suggest how gender bias and other discrimination are still widespread and tolerated in the Japanese corporate world.

The revelation of the Yoshinoya case came only days after the Nikkei business daily came under fire for publishing a full-page advertisement for a comic book featuring a high school girl in a mini-skirt uniform with bulging breasts, prompting complaints from UN Women that it was “unacceptable” and violated guidelines against stereotypes.

Ito was asking participants in the lecture to devise a marketing strategy that would “get country girls hooked on (Yoshinoya) like drug addicts while they are still naive virgins,” according to a participant who complained about the remark on social media. Ito continued, saying “they won’t eat (gyudon) once they start getting treated to expensive meals by men.”

The participant who posted the message expressed disappointment and anger over the content of the lecture, which was part of an expensive course at a prestigious university.

Ito’s comments quickly sparked outrage on Twitter and other social media, where people said the remarks insulted women as well as people from the countryside, prompting the company to apologize and dismiss Ito.

In an April 18 statement, Yoshinoya apologized for “causing trouble and unpleasant feelings.” It said “the choice of words and expression used during the lecture were extremely inappropriate and could not be tolerated.”

The following day, Yoshinoya said its board had decided to fire Ito, adding that the company will organize a compliance session for executives.

Japan remains far behind other advanced nations and ranks 120th in the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Gender Gap index of 156 countries. 

Report: Fake Twitter accounts spread Chinese propaganda

BEIJING (AP) — A U.S.-based intelligence company says it uncovered a network of more than 600 inauthentic Twitter accounts that spread a positive narrative of China’s far-western Xinjiang region, as Beijing was being accused of human rights abuses and locking up hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities there.

According to a report released on April 25 by Nisos, 648 Twitter accounts posted several thousand tweets with hashtags such as (hash)xinjiang, (hash)forcedlabor and (hash)humanrights, with seemingly innocuous content such as traditional dancing and scenic photos, as well as videos with individuals denying that forced labor exists in Xinjiang.

The network and its tweets appear to be intended to promote “a positive narrative regarding Xinjiang and Uyghur treatment within the People’s Republic of China” and actively targeted a foreign audience, the report found.

The report comes as China is being criticized internationally for its treatment of Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group native to the Xinjiang region. In recent years, China held hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in what Beijing calls “vocational education and training centers” but are widely believed by experts and academics to be internment camps.

China has also been accused of using forced labor in programs that transferred Uyghurs out of Xinjiang and assigned them to different factories around the country. Global brands across the world including Nike and H&M expressed concern over the use of forced labor, confirming that they will not use products such as cotton from the region and will strengthen oversight of their supply chains.

While Nisos researchers did not reveal who is behind the network of inauthentic accounts, they said the majority of tweets were posted during business hours in China, between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Many of the accounts were created after August 2021, using stock images for their profile pictures, and the tweets were often posted within minutes of each other.

The accounts would often quote other accounts within the network to gain visibility on the platform, although at times they would also amplify content from Chinese diplomats, such as Zhang Meifang, the consul general of China in Belfast, as well as Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, Nisos said.

Many of the Twitter accounts mentioned in the Nisos report have since been suspended for violating Twitter rules.

This is not the first time that researchers have uncovered networks of inauthentic accounts posting propaganda to influence perceptions of China.

Last year, researchers at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that more than 2,000 Twitter accounts were pushing narratives by China’s government on what was happening in Xinjiang, many of which expressed anti-Western sentiment or labeled the accusations against China as lies.

China often uses social media as a way to spread its messages, with an investigation last year by AP and the Oxford Internet Institute finding that armies of fake accounts amplify propaganda by Chinese diplomats and state media tens of thousands of times to reach a wider audience while masking the fact that the content is state-sponsored.

Earlier this year, China launched a discreet social media campaign in which it paid a U.S.-based agency to recruit influencers in the U.S. with the aim of promoting the Beijing Winter Olympics on social media platforms Instagram and TikTok. 

Predictions and advice for the week of April 30–May 6, 2022

By Sun Lee Chang

Rat—Curious about the details of the whole story? Be patient as it is revealed to you in due course. Dragon—If your initial strategy is not working, then try modifying to better suit the current conditions.

Ox—Don’t mistake an easy route with the right one. A little extra effort will pay off down the line.

Tiger—While you are normally firm on certain rules, circumstances could call for a bit of leeway this week.

Rabbit—Are you trying to work with a new group? If so, it might be helpful to set some expectations upfront. Snake—Although you are tempted to throw in the towel, one more attempt may be warranted for a worthy endeavor.

Horse—A trained eye can discern things that others cannot. It simply takes practice to get there.

Goat—Meet the challenge of an unusual situation by using your creativity to figure out a path forward. Monkey—There are other things that you would rather do today, but be sure to meet your obligations first.

Rooster—On track to be ahead of schedule? Rather than slow down, keep up the pace until you are done.

Dog—Why make things more complicated than necessary? It’s all about getting back to basics today.

Pig—In case things don’t work out exactly as you planned, it is a good idea to have a backup available.

WHAT’S YOUR ANIMAL SIGN?

RAT 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020 OX 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021 TIGER 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022 RABBIT 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 DRAGON 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 SNAKE 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 HORSE 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 GOAT 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 MONKEY 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016 ROOSTER 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 DOG 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018 PIG 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019

*The year ends on the first new moon of the following year. For those born in January and February, please take care when determining your sign.

PATRIARCHY from 10

ministry now, most end up serving in mainline or multiethnic congregations rather than Korean American churches.

“There is this sense that I love my home church and I don’t want to abandon my home community,” she said. “But they don’t affirm me as a leader. It’s heartbreaking.”

Ok’s own church is largely Asian American, but not specifically Korean. Several years ago she served as interim lead pastor for nine months.

“I was afraid people would leave because I’m a woman, but they didn’t,” she said. “That was very encouraging. Change doesn’t happen overnight. You have to create pathways and pipelines.”

Soo Ji Alvarez is in a similar situation. After growing up in a conservative Korean immigrant church in Vancouver, British Columbia, that had no female pastors, today she is lead pastor of The Avenue Church, a multiethnic Free Baptist congregation in Riverside, California.

The move away from her home church was not intentional but happened organically, she said, and she embraces her pastoral position as a role model.

“It’s a big deal for me (as a woman of Korean descent) to lead a congregation,” she said. “I hope I can help pave the way for others so they know it’s possible. Ministry should be like any other career—your ethnicity or gender should not affect your chances.”

As for the pastors’ male counterparts in Korean American churches, Kim, for one, expressed anger that so many stay silent on the issue: “They feel like fighting social justice issues shouldn’t be the church’s business. But to me it is God’s work. It’s important, necessary work.”

But Lee, whose ordination was objectionable to her family, said it pleases her to see some male pastors welcome women to the pulpit—as her husband eventually did.

The Rev. John Park, who leads Numa Church in Buena Park, California, is one male pastor who embraces such allyship. He called on men to consciously work to empower women, citing Scripture in the words of the Apostle Paul: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

“The Bible is clear on the issue of equality,” Park said. “But this is an internal battle in our community. We’re fighting our own past.” 

KOREA LEADERS from 4

after KCNA’s report, but spent hours before releasing its version of what was said, which indicated that the North didn’t coordinate with Seoul before announcing the exchange. KCNA’s report wasn’t published on the North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, read by its domestic audience, showing that the message was intended for the South.

According to Seoul, Moon in his letter to Kim acknowledged setbacks in inter-Korean relations but insisted that their aspirational vows for peace during their summits in 2018 and an accompanying military agreement aimed at defusing border area clashes remain relevant as a foundation for future cooperation.

Moon also expressed hope for a resumption of nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang and for Kim to pursue cooperation with Seoul’s next government led by conservative President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol, Moon’s spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said.

While sending a letter to the North’s leader is a courtesy as the South’s leaves office, analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the South’s private Sejong Institute said, the North publicized the personal exchange with an aim to create division in South Korea ahead of a government change.

“Considering indications that North Korea is preparing for its seventh nuclear test, it’s questionable whether it was appropriate for President Moon to send a letter to Chairman Kim to express his warm greetings,” Cheong said.

Yoon, who takes office on May 10, has harshly described Moon’s foreign policy for being “subservient” toward North Korea and said he wouldn’t pursue “talks for talks’ sake.” He has vowed to strengthen South Korea’s defense in conjunction with its alliance with the United States, which he says would include enhancing preemptive strike capabilities and anti-missile systems to deter North Korean attacks.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen since a series of North Korean weapons tests this year, including its first flight-test of an intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017 in March, reviving the nuclear brinkmanship aimed at forcing the U.S. to accept it as a nuclear power and to remove crippling sanctions.

South Korea’s military has also detected signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before Kim’s first meeting with then-President Donald Trump in June 2018, a possible indicator that the country is preparing to resume nuclear explosive tests.

Staking his single presidential term on inter-Korean rapprochement, Moon met Kim three times in 2018 and lobbied hard to help set up Kim’s meetings with Trump. But the diplomacy never recovered from the collapse of the second Kim-Trump meeting in 2019 in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Kim has since vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent to counter “gangster-like” U.S. pressure and sped up his weapons development despite limited resources and pandemic-related difficulties.

North Korea also severed all cooperation with Moon’s government while expressing anger over the continuation of U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which were curtailed in recent years to promote diplomacy with the North, and Seoul’s inability to wrest concessions from Washington on its behalf.

Analysts say North Korea is likely to escalate its weapons demonstrations in coming weeks or months to force a reaction from the Biden administration, which has been focused on Russia’s war on Ukraine and a rivalry with China. 

ADVERTISE STATEWIDE with a $325 classified listing or $1600 for a display ad. Call this newspaper or 360-3442938 for details. DONATE YOUR CAR TO CHARITY. Receive maximum value of write off for your taxes. Running or not! All conditions accepted. Free pickup. Call for details, 855-6354229. Purchase. 10% Senior & Military Discounts. Call 1-888360-1582.