Posted on: Friday, November 1, 2002

Ehime-bound youths get $15,000 from HTA

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Hawai'i Tourism Authority yesterday donated $15,000 to help cover expenses of two youth baseball teams that will play in a goodwill tournament later this month in Ehime Prefecture in Japan.

The teams were invited to play in the Ehime Maru Goodwill Baseball Tournament scheduled for Nov. 27 to Dec. 2. The cost to send the Hawai'i teams will be covered by a private association in Ehime prefecture, but the two local teams needed money to pay for uniforms and winter jackets.

Ehime is home to the Uwajima Fisheries High School, which lost nine students and teachers on Feb. 9, 2001, when the USS Greeneville rammed the Ehime Maru training vessel nine miles south of Diamond Head.

"This (the tournament) will serve as a means of comfort and healing in remembrance of the tragic accident that occurred in Hawai'i waters last year," said Seiji Naya, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, who asked the Hawai'i Tourism Authority for assistance.

The authority approved $15,000 for uniforms, promotional gifts, memorial offerings and to host a reception. Rex Johnson, authority president and chief executive officer, said the board was happy to assist the two local teams.

"The event provides an opportunity to strengthen the local relationship between Japan and Hawai'i, as well as the larger relationship between our two nations," Johnson said.

Naya said he was pleased with the financial assistance. But he said more money will be needed to pay for the reception because nearly 200 people — including 100 from Hawai'i — are expected to attend the tournament.

Naya said he will ask the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau for help.

"(The tournament) has a secondary impact on Hawai'i's tourism," Naya said. "It's not the main purpose we're going there, but they will cover it on television and in the newspapers."

The idea of a tournament was developed by the Ehime-Hawai'i Goodwill Baseball Association in Japan. The group invited two teams in the 11-12 and 13-15 age divisions in hopes of fostering relations between Ehime and Hawai'i.