Thank you very much for informing me of the letter that you had recieved from the WYVEA’s Secretary General Mr. (or Ms.) Masami Kanno (the “letter”) and the WYVEA Response to my report (the “Response”) which also had been submitted to your office. This is to respond to both the “letter” and the "Response”. I greatly appreciate your discretion on the matter.

1. The “letter” falsely accused me of having “secretly followed" the group “everyday". However, only the places I could bring myself to observe them were at the airport on their arrival, the Pathways Restaurant and the Traders’ Ridge Restaurant, where were open to public or to the other customers. I had never hid myself, talked nor come close to anyone from the group. I am sure that most of the children could have never known of my existence. Even though I took some snap photos of the group with my small camera, the individuals were unidentifiable. My intention was to monitor physical, mental and monetary effects provided by the group to the Yap State for the future reference. No one from the group had ever talked, inquired, or asked me of my presence or of my taking photos. Instead, they started taking pictures of myself with their cameras equipped with telephoto lens.
2. In the morning of August 4^th, when we (Nature’s Way staff and the guest) were preparing our dive trip, I saw 5 small boats were loading the group at Marina dock where we were located. Most of the boats were heavily overloaded and they planed to go to the outer-reef. As a professional tour operator, this was shocking thing to see. Even some of the local boat operators from their boat were expressing worries. Our guest diver was also worried and offered his patience for our dive boat to escort them to stand-by in case of emergency. When we reached to the Goofnuw channel, because the water visibility was low, our guest then requested to go to the M’iil channel, that eventually made our boat to follow the group all the way to Wanead, where the group had landed. Our boat had never bothered any of the group’s overloaded boats’ operation always keeping enough distance from them. Instead, we spent extra 6 gallons of fuel for this voluntary activity. Please contact our guest diver, who is a Japanese resident in Yap staying at the ESA Bay View Hotel, for corroboration.
3. In the WYVEA “Response”, whether by accident or by design, there are many inaccuracies:

1. No name and no signature on the “Response”. Even if it used the WYVEA’s letterhead, this kind of document should be considered as “fabrication”.
2. Ignoring my name and signature on my report, the “Response” strangely states that my report was “distributed by Eco Club”. Everybody who ever had been involved with Eco Club’s activities in Yap knows that I had never been with them. I have written my report based on my own sources and thus am solely responsible for what I had written.
3. My writing was mis-transcribed in the paragraph 4 in the “Response”. My original report showed the estimated WYVEA’s FY2001 budget calculation not of the FY2002.
4. The “Response” states in the paragraph 6 that the Japanese participants “pay a nominal US$500 participation fee". However, on the WYVEA’s web site it shows that the participation fee was 75,000 Japanese yen. (US$1.00=117 yen on Aug. 15, 2002)
5. In the paragraph 6, the “Response” also states that my estimation of their budget per head and actual cost per head were "completely unfounded and libelous". However, the “Response” failed to present neither their budget for the FY2002 program or their cost calculation to proof themselves against mine.

As the “Response” repeatedly states, the WYVEA is just one of the non-government, non-profit organizations in Japan, which receives government funds through Kodomo Yume Kikin. This situation is no different from the Eco Club as a body except for their financial scale. In view of this knowledge, the request by the “letter” looks incredibly inappropriate and high-handed when it reads “I would appreciate it if you would deal with the unfavorable situation as the government”. The WYVEA had never tried to solve the “problem”, if any, by themselves and instead, asked for your support for "this program to be a success without being disturbed by the unscrupulous action (by one of the Japanese citizens)”.

It was greatly to be regretted that the uniformed policemen had forcibly expelled me from the public road near the WYVEA reception site on August 6^th while the other bystanders were allowed to remain. However, I fully understand your difficult situation at the strange request of the WYVEA. Due to lack of the proper information, the confusing approach and the insufficient preparation done by one of the ex-JOCV hired by the WYVEA, many of the people in Yap State misunderstood the nature of the WYVEA and its program. To learn the program’s effects on the Yap State’s economy, culture and community, I will prepare a follow-up report shortly, and hope this could help bring fair mutual relationship and fruitful friendship between Japan and Yap for the future.