November 28, 2001
To Whom It May Concern:
RE: Concerns on Mr. Naoki Ishikawa and His Plans
During early August of this year, I, Mitsue Yasui (Su), got some emails and telephone calls from different TV stations in Japan. One was from Mr. HT, TV Asahi and the other was from Mr. NK, TBS. The two TV directors were asking me for almost the same information, i.e. how to go to Woleai and Satawal, how much would be the cost, where to stay while there and how to contact Mr. Mau Piailug from Satawal and Mr. Francisco Mairal from Woleai. Eventually, I had found that Mr. NAOKI ISHIKAWA was the person who had suggested these TV stations to film his learning Micronesian star navigation. Since their inquiry was very strange, I started my personal investigation on Mr. Ishikawa and his two or more filming plans.
Mr. Naoki Ishikawa is 24 years old Japanese male who recently had climbed 7 summits of the 7 continents. He has gotten quite popular in Japan with the assistance and heavy reliance on mass media such as TV and published book and magazine articles on his adventures. He has announced that he will come to Micronesia to learn star navigation. However, through reading his published writings and hearing reports from the people who actually had known him, I started feeling that Mr. Ishikawafs knowledge, experience and understanding on the matter being very limited and incorrect. I also felt that his real purpose for coming to Micronesia could be just making up his stories, in the same way he had done in his past expeditions. Contacting TV directors and producers and getting their sponsors with him would make him able to travel around and make himself popular, which eventually would generate his monetary income. The more I knew him, the more I became doubtful.
With the finding and my feeling above, I was reluctant to help those TV groups and was trying to discourage them. Eventually they stopped contacting me after a while, but I heard they were on the way. Then Mr. HT from TV Asahi suddenly appeared in front of me in Yap on November 14th.
Mr. HT came to Yap on that day with Mr. Naoki Ishikawa, planning flying direct to Woleai but Council of Tamol stopped them. Since Mr. HT was really confused and asking for my help, I listened to him and gave him some suggestions. Ifve tried explaining how he was mislead by Mr. Ishikawa, what procedures must be taken before filming in Yap State and what kind of cautions must be considered to treat the indigenous. I also discouraged Mr. HT to continue his project but finally he and Mr. Ishikawa made their way to Woleai on the 19th. Mr. HT unwillingly came back to Yap on the 23rd leaving Mr. Ishikawa in Woleai until the 26th. He had become angrier with Mr. Ishikawa and said he would no longer guseh Mr. Ishikawa in his film and would help stop Mr. Ishikawa from coming back in December with TBS team lead by Mr. Kubo because Mr. Ishikawa also misinformed Mr. Kubo.
The following is some of our immediate concerns on Mr. Ishikawafs doing:
1) Mr. Ishikawa is using many photos of Micronesians on his gofficialh and commercial web site without the portrayed personsf permission.
2) Mr. Ishikawa has not applied for a researcherfs permit according to the Yap State researcherfs law and has been publishing many commercial articles and presentations on his gstudies and practicesh of Micronesian star navigation which was said had been done in Yap State.
3) Mr. Ishikawafs behavior is unclear and dishonest. Mr. Ishikawa secretly had some more businesses other than TV Asahi, such as Nippon TV and Yomiuri Shinbun, but he hid them from TV Asahi and made TV Asahi cover almost the expenses for his trip to Woleai including souvenirs for his friends and the host families. Mr. Ishikawa also hid his extra businesses from the people in Woleai and did his own businesses during his stay in Woleai ignoring and disregarding the fact that the entry permit to Woleai was issued to TV Asahi for their filming activities only.
4) Through Mr. Ishikawafs publication, many of the Japanese audience and readers will be misinformed about the people and culture of Yap State.
Because of the reasons above, I am really concerned about Mr. Ishikawafs continuing his business in Yap State and strongly suggest that all the authorities and the communities of Yap State should be aware of his misconduct and make sure to protect the rights and dignity of Yap State citizens.
Mr. Ishikawa has next plan with TBS BS-i (Satellite Broadcasting) TV, arriving in Yap on December 19, 2001. Mr. Ishikawa is being the leading actor of the film, Mr. NK, the director and some more crewmembers. This film will be a two hours talk show featuring NAOKI ISHIKAWA learning Micronesian star navigation and 30-min. film in Woleai & Satawal. Mr. Shaku already contacted the council of Tamol, PMA and YFA on behalf of them (somehow Mr. Kubo seemed to have contacted Mr. Shaku for the arrangement). They plan to fly to Woleai on December 19th right after their arrival in Yap. After filming in Woleai for a couple of days, some are planning to go to Satawal by YFA boat. Because of their bigger size of the project and budget, it will be hard for Mr. Kubo to change their objectives and goals once they arrive in Yap even if Mr. Kubo finds many plans are not the way he expects believing what he was told by Mr. Ishikawa. The damage will be bigger than the one Mr. HT and TV Asahi had.
Lastly, besides Mr. Naoki Ishikawafs involvement, I also have some more concerns on inviting such a kind of TV project to Yap State:
1. The people and culture of Yap is NOT the leading part of the film.
2. None of the local people or community is involved in the filmmaking. This means that the film making process is OUT of control of the indigenous.
3. None of the filming crewmember has previously tried to establish a good and respectful relationship with the indigenous.
4. None of the filming crewmember has the academic training of ethnology, anthropology, history and philosophy, i.e. study of humans.
My suggestion is unless we, the indigenous, are 100% involved in the filmmaking and there is enough and fare compensation with necessary risk consideration and its management, we should not carelessly let our lives and knowledge exposed to mass media.
Thank you very much for your attention and consideration.
@
Su Mitsue Yasui
Naturefs Way
@
PS:
When Mr. HT insisted on continuing filming in Yap proper changing his subject into new ones, I retired from supporting him. Because of his limited preparation and shortage of time, I doubt of his understanding and fear the results. Actually, I devoted quite of my time to help Mr. HT enduring hard time in Yap but I had done this for the purpose of stopping Mr. Ishikawafs wrong doing and my friendship toward Mr. HT. With that determination and disappointment, my business Naturefs Way and myself never received any monetary compensation from Mr. HT or TV Asahi. Therefore, whatever final result may come out from Mr. HTfs filming, neither Naturefs Way nor myself will be responsible for it.
@
@
@