December 10, 2001

To Whom It May Concern

Again, I, Sue Mitsue Yasui, would like to inform as many people as possible of the facts and realities I had found of Mr. Naoki Ishikawa and his commercial filming activities in Yap State. My letters on this matter may be copied and shared with anybody who concerned, as long as the whole articles are referred and neither line nor sentence is modified.

If anyone who has not read my previous letter dated on November 28, 2001, please start with it first. The facts I’m writing here are its follow-ups.

Mr. Ishikawa remained in Woleai until November 26^th and he, Mr. HT - TV Asahi director and myself had happened to be leaving Yap on the same 28^th of November for Japan. Mr. HT and Mr. Ishikawa had been no longer speaking each other and remained separately all the way to Japan. I was going to Japan for JATA show with a dance team from Kaday Village. In the moments I was away from the team at the airport, Mr. Ishikawa came to the team, introduced himself as “a member of Eco Club” and mentioned that he had stayed in Kaday village a couple years ago with Eco Club. It was true, HOWEVER, the founders of Eco Club, Ms. Takako Takano and Mr. Junichi Ohmae, had NEVER agreed on his coming to Yap with commercial TV film teams and non-of Mr. Ishikawa’s activities was related to Eco Clubs’ after his initial trip to Yap was over.

On the November 30^th, the second day for JATA show, Ms. Shinobu Katayama, Coordinator for TBS, appeared at the booth for Yap Visitors Bureau (YVB) where we, all delegation from Yap State, were trying to make good tourism promotion for the state. She stayed in/out of our small booth for many hours holding and interviewing each delegation member one by one. I wondered who she was and what she was doing there. Actually her existence in our booth felt really bothersome for our promotion activities.

In the morning of December 1^st at the show, I was really surprised to see Mr. Ishikawa with Mr. Kubo, TBS Director and Ms. Katayama. Besides, there appeared Mr. HT, TV Asahi Director, to see the Yapese dance, who was still terribly angry with Mr. Ishikawa. All of them remained around the small YVB booth for many hours and holding our lieutenant governor and YVB board members for their making arrangements. It was more than disgusting scene to see because we went to JATA for our state’s tourism promotion not for providing easy contacts and arrangements to those TV groups.

During and after the show, I had brief chances to talk with Mr. Kubo and Ms. Katayama. I handed my previous letter to Mr. Kubo and asked him to contact Mr. HT for the second opinion. However, their response was vague.

It was another surprise for me to find Ms. Katayama in the same flight on my way back to Yap. In Guam during our transit, I asked her why she still wants to force herself to continue their project after finding that there had been so many risky and incorrect stories around Mr. Ishikawa.

Ms. Katayama said, “since so many people and sponsors are involved including YAMAHA Music Company and the singer Ms. Sachiyo Nakamura, I cannot stop it now. If I give up, I will lose job. I know Mr. Ishikawa is something but we must make use of him with Ms. Nakamura. We must go on the schedule as far as we can.”

Her comments made me say to her, “Are you saying that even though you know you are making up stories which is not based on the facts and truth, you must continue it not to lose your job? What do you think of the people in Yap? Protecting your job is more important than the people in Yap State and their culture?”

***

Mr. HT - TV Asahi director - is also struggling with his boss. After he found Mr. Ishikawa’s falsehood in Woleai, he decided not to use Mr. Ishikawa’s stories in his film. But back in Tokyo his boss required Mr. HT to USE Mr. Ishikawa because TV Asahi had spent a lot of money on him. The company must get it back through Mr. Ishikawa!

***

The stories above clearly show that once you accept these kind of TV groups, your truthfulness, sincerity and idealism cannot stand up to their big mechanism of film making, which is backed up with a big sum of money from the “sponsors”. TV media will not listen to you the honest but will listen to their sponsors.

As soon as Mr. Ishikawa went back to Japan, he published his articles and reports on his commercial website and his “official” website using many photos which had been taken during his recent stay in Woleai. I also found many mistakes and improper explanations in his writings. If you can find someone who can read Japanese language in a computer with Japanese language support, please look into and examine them by yourself. I will attach some of the printed photos to this letter. Each photo has its number to indicate where you can find it in his website. Of course these photos are more clear and visible when you look them in a computer.

P-1 at;

Mr. Mau Piailug was introduced as his teacher.

P-2 at;

P-3 at;

P-4 at;

P-5 at;

“Because there was no big stone in Yap from long time ago, they would go to other islands near by such as Palau, curve stone money and carry back to Yap by canoe” at;

November 15^th ~ Council of Chiefs ~

“Today I went to the place where the islands chiefs had held meeting. I went there to ask for a permit to enter Woleai. In the meeting, they would discuss on the issues such as making an airport or making a hotel in an island would be acceptable or not, etc….”

“My permit will be issued tomorrow.”

November 20^th ~ To Tagaulap Island ~

“I decided to accompany the men going to Tagaulap Island to rebuilt a men’s house there.”

“Tagaulap is the second to the largest island in Woleai Atoll.”

“They used a drift wood about 50 feet long to replace an old pole.”

“In many islands in Micronesia, because they had cut too many big trees in the past to make their canoes, they now rely on drift woods.”

November 21^st ~ I sailed on a canoe ~

“Today I sailed on a canoe. --------- Because there was almost no wind, we came back to the island soon.”

****** How he could take the photo if he was sailing on the canoe? ******

November 22^nd ~ George’s Story ~

“During the war, there was a time Japan occupied Micronesia…”

“George is an old man nearly 80 years old who speaks fluent Japanese. He still could recite a phrase from his school text book during the war.”

****** The above indicate that Mr. Ishikawa doesn’t know the recent history of Micronesia. If the old man George is nearly 80 years, he must have finished his school in Maki, Gagil, Yap BEFORE the war. During the war there was no school education maintained involving all the school children for labor ******

November 25^th ~ Traditional Navigation ~

“Today I listened to Francisco (Mairal) and learned the knowledge of poogof. Poogof is knowledge of memorizing creatures and natural phenomenon which would appear in 32 directions of an island.”

“Poogof is something like this; if you go toward this star from the island, you will see a manta, or if you go toward that star from the island, you will see a whale facing down in the water and its tail up the surface”

“Today, I learned Poogof Woleai and Poogof Ifaluk.

“Francisco said, ““when you tell navigation technique to someone, you never lie. If you lie, someone might die from it in the ocean. Therefore, you must not tell your uncertain knowledge to anyone. And when you tell navigation technique to someone, you must take the responsibility for doing it.”””

****** I think the old Mairal was trying to make Mr. Ishikawa understand what he had been doing was not good and dangerous. However, Mr. Ishikawa didn’t catch his “teacher’s” precious words for himself and used them for his article instead. He continues some more ******

“I feel myself proud being taught of this kind of knowledge” “I wish I master navigation technique some day and travel all Micronesia around by canoe.”

1. Mr. Ishikawa is using many photos of the citizens of Yap State on his personal/commercial website, which means he is making money out of somebody’s portrait, without the portrayed persons’ permission.
2. Mr. Ishikawa has not applied for a researcher’s permit according to the Yap State researcher’s law, Bill No. 4-32, D2, Yap State Law No. 4-33. But he has been publishing many commercial articles and presentations on his “studies and practices” of Micronesian star navigation. For example, in Japan he already has made some of his presentation plans in January and started collecting audience. The entrance fee is around $10.00 per person. You may contact the numbers below for more information or reserve for your seats.

Tel/Fax: 816-6463-8627 E-mail: lotus@yo.rim.or.jp

3. Since Mr. Ishikawa’s knowledge and experience is very limited and he has never had any training as a researcher, he often makes many mistakes in his products but seems to have no sense of taking responsibility.
4. Through Mr. Ishikawa’s publication, many of the Japanese audience and readers will be misinformed of the people and culture of Yap State.
5. This TBS filming was originally planed and started based on the stories provided by Mr. Ishikawa.
6. Because Mr. Ishikawa plays one of the leading actors (reporters) in the film, and because the film will be later edited and made up for the use of two hours talk show, it will be almost impossible for the indigenous to get themselves involved in the process of film making. This means that they can do whatever things they like to make up their own stories out of cutting up films taken from our people.
7. There already have too many people and too much money involved. Those people already involved will calculate their effort and time for money and require making “profit” out of this filming instead of trying to be honest, sincere and accurate to the facts and reality. This is why they still force themselves to come to Yap.
8. Their target audience seems to be children and the youth. This big money project is knowingly about to fool children and the youth with the faked stories of Mr. Ishikawa!

1. Will have some tourists who insist on meeting with “famous navigators” to become his “students”.
2. Mr. Ishikawa will become more popular in Japan and will make more business out of his photos, articles and presentations.
3. The true culture and traditions of our islands will be misinformed and recorded forever which might affect the future generations in the both countries.

Mr. Ishikawa, Ms. Nakamura, Ms. Arai, Mr. Kubo - director, a camera crew and an assistant, six of them are arriving in Yap on December 15^th. And Ms. Katayama is already here to make arrangements. They want to go to Woleai and they will have some options. Since they have given up going to Satawal chartering YFA boat for almost two weeks, they now have a quite good supply of budget. Why not let them spend the maximum for our community if we cannot stop their coming?

*If you would like to stop them entering Woleai, please explain “why”, showing them how Mr. Ishikawa had disregarded and disrespected the people. Or, suggesting a huge amount of entrance fee will work. The amount of a few thousand dollars is still too small to stop them. $100,000.00 or higher will do.

*If you would decide to accept them, please make sure to get more than enough monetary compensation from them. Actually there will not be “enough” compensation because you will risk your dignity and existence of your own culture. I would suggest around $30,000.00 or higher all-inclusive for seven people for one week within Woleai Atoll only.

I guess they are considering Kaday Village as a substitute to Woleai in case they cannot enter there. Also they might want to film the village and the people, especially Mr. Bomtam.

*If you would like to stop them entering Kaday, please explain “why”, showing them how Mr. Ishikawa had disregarded and disrespected the people. Mr. Ohmae and Ms. Takano will support with more information to assist your refusal if you wish.

*If you would decide to accept them, please make sure to get more than enough monetary compensation from them. Actually there will not be “enough” compensation because you will risk your dignity and existence of your own culture. I would suggest around $10,000.00 or higher all-inclusive for seven people for one week which includes dance practice and some village activities.

If they cannot make it to Woleai, they will ask for canoe sailing & filming in Yap proper. Ms. Katayama already knew there are some canoes available in Yap proper. Please be reminded that they are using your canoe for a substitute and making up stories. This case is very different from taking tourists out or taking travel writers out for tourism promotion. If you would like to offer them, please make sure you get more than enough payment for your canoe, labor and pride.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Su Mitsue Yasui

Nature’s Way