The Asian reporter., March 16, 2015, Page Page 4, Image 4

Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
March 16, 2015
Inbee Park wins HSBC Women’s
Champions by two strokes over Ko
Soy sauce makes ‘miracle’ comeback
in tsunami-wrecked Japan
Continued from page 2
other manufacturers. Kono turned an old
inn in Rikuzentakata into his office and
then built a new factory in a nearby town
on land vacated by a school. It began soy
production in early 2013.
But resurrecting Yagisawa’s soy sauce
flavor would not have been possible if the
original cultures had not been found,
mainly by sheer luck.
The cultures were in storage at a
university medical research laboratory
where Kono had donated them for possible
cancer-fighting research. The lab was
destroyed by the tsunami, but the
containers with the cultures were found
nearby by its researchers, intact.
The sauce, made from soy beans and
wheat, must sit for two years before it can
be sold. That’s why the sauce, given the
name “Miracle,” went on sale for the first
time only in November.
These days, the company is still losing
money, but sales are back to about 70
percent of pre-disaster levels, and it has
found new customers including a fancy
restaurant in France. Before the tsunami,
it had mostly supplied businesses. Now,
it’s selling more soy direct to consumers,
many of them eager to help a company
rebuild.
Still, the success of Yagisawa is an
exception to the prevailing story of loss and
death the tsunami has left.
The Rikuzentaka coastline that used to
be filled with quaint storefronts like
Yagisawa’s and residential homes is now a
barren stretch of brown dirt, except for
trucks and cranes.
A memorial replica of a solitary pine tree
that survived the tsunami is perched on
top of a hill, a symbol for the city. But there
are hardly any visitors.
Rubble and debris have been cleaned up.
Construction work is underway, razing
nearby hills, moving the dirt with conveyor
belts that stretch for nearly two miles, and
stacking the dirt into mounds.
The goal is to raise the shoreline by 30 to
36 feet above sea level, and rebuild a
community in the tsunami zone, on top of
the elevated area, a project expected to
take three more years.
Kono acknowledged he was skeptical
about the effort, noting that neighboring
towns had offered to take Rikuzentakata
residents in.
But he plans to be right back with a
store, maybe a restaurant, when the
project is finished. He has already opened
a small café in the construction area,
selling soy cakes, Yagisawa t-shirts, and a
variety of soups, pastes, and sauces,
including “Miracle.”
Mamoru Araki, 41, owner of one of a
handful of restaurants left in the area, who
grew up with Kono, said Yagisawa sauce is
not too sweet, just right for his sashimi, or
raw fish.
Big challenges remain for recon-
struction in the region, but at least his
friend’s company was back.
“That taste has returned,” he said.
Malaysia vows action if controller slept when MH370 vanished
By Eileen Ng
The Associated Press
UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia —
Malaysia’s transport minister has
vowed to take stern action against
an air traffic control supervisor if it is
confirmed that he was asleep on the job
when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
disappeared a year ago.
A recent interim investigation report
contained transcripts of conversations
between air traffic controllers and the
airline that revealed confusion after the
Boeing 777 dropped off radar with 239
people aboard while flying from Kuala
Lumpur to Beijing.
The last voice contact was a “good night”
message from the cockpit to the controllers
at 1:19am on March 8, 2014. The shutdown
of the transponder one minute later
removed the plane’s identification from
commercial radar.
In one conversation four hours later, a
Kuala Lumpur air traffic controller told a
Malaysia Airlines official that he would
need to wake up his supervisor when
pressed on the exact time of the last
contact with the plane. The controller
came on duty after 3:00am.
Transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said
K
his department viewed the matter serious-
ly and was conducting an internal investi-
gation, including whether the supervisor
was on or off duty at the time in question.
“The work is on rotation. ... If he is on a
working shift, this is serious. We will
definitely take action if there is any
misconduct,” he told reporters.
Liow said the ministry didn’t investigate
the matter earlier as they were waiting for
the report by the independent safety
investigation team.
The ministry’s probe will be “very fast,”
he added, without saying when it would be
completed.
After the last contact, the plane deviated
from its flight path, turning sharply west
and then south, according to analyses of
transmissions to a satellite. Despite an
exhaustive search in the southern Indian
Ocean where the plane was believed to
have run out of fuel and crashed, no trace
of wreckage has been found.
In late January, Malaysia’s government
formally declared the plane’s disappear-
ance an accident and said all those on
board were presumed dead.
The report also showed that the battery
of the underwater locator beacon for the
Continued on page 5
13TH LPGA TITLE. Inbee Park of South Korea kisses the trophy af-
ter winning the HSBC Women’s Champions golf tournament on March 8,
2015 in Singapore. With the win, Park claimed her 13th career Ladies
Professional Golf Association title. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Defending
champion
Paula Creamer had a 74 to
tie for 55th place.
Park, Ko, and Lewis
played in the final group,
with Park holding the
overnight lead at 13-under
and Ko and Lewis tied in
second place at 11 under.
Ko made consecutive
birdies on the fourth and
fifth holes to pull even.
They remained tied for the
lead at 14 under after both
had a birdie on the seventh,
while Lewis trailed by two
strokes.
Ko stumbled with a bo-
gey on the eighth, allowing
Park to make the turn with
a one-shot advantage.
But Ko’s chances of a
seventh
career
LPGA
victory and her third win in
as many weeks were all but
erased with bogeys on holes
12 and 13.
“On this course, it’s not
that hard to lose shots,” Ko
said. “There are some lip
outs and there are so many
close ones. But I finished
well with a birdie on 18,
and I had a great stretch of
three weeks, and I would
have never imagined to
have one second place and
two wins.”
Lewis erased her bogey
on the 10th with a birdie on
the 13th, only to drop
another shot behind with a
bogey on the 18th.
The next LPGA tournament,
the JTBC Founders Cup, takes
place March 19 through 22.
2014 Exemplary Community Volunteer Award Recipient:
IRCO Asian Family Center
AR Photo/Jan Landis
SAUCY COMEBACK. Michihiro Kono, president of Yagisawa Shoten Co., walks to his company’s new
headquarters in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan. Four years after the March 11, 2011 tsu-
nami, the company has been saved through Kono’s conviction, crowd-funding, and the unexpected survival of
its vital ingredient. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
SINGAPORE (AP) —
Inbee Park claimed her
13th career Ladies Pro-
fessional Golf Association
(LPGA) title by winning
the HSBC Women’s Cham-
pions, shooting a 2-under
70 in the final round to win
by two strokes.
Park, who started the
day with the same two-
stroke lead, had birdies on
holes 7 and 11 at Sentosa
Golf Club to finish the tour-
nament at a 15-under 273,
clear of 17-year-old Lydia
Ko, who also shot a 70.
Park hasn’t carded a
bogey since the third round
of the Honda LPGA Thai-
land, a streak of five con-
secutive bogey-free rounds.
“This week was just
incredible,” Park said. “I
don’t think I can even
believe myself that I didn’t
make any bogeys for 72
holes. I mean, if I thought
about bogeys, then am I
going to make bogey; if I
was afraid of the bogeys, I’d
probably make bogeys. But
I thought, whatever hap-
pens, it’s just meant to be.”
Stacy Lewis had a bogey
on the final hole for a 72
that left her in third place,
four strokes off the lead.
Azahara Munoz, who
was runner-up last year,
tied for fourth at 10-under
with Shanshan Feng and
So Yeon Ryu.
The IRCO Asian Family Center (AFC) was established in 1994 by the Immigrant
and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) to provide multilingual and
multicultural community-based services. The nonprofit center serves more than
5,200 individuals and families each year in our area’s diverse Asian communities —
Bhutanese, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Lao, Mien, Nepali,
Pacific Islander, Thai, and Vietnamese — as well as the mainstream population. In
2013-2014, AFC worked on many projects impacting the Asian community,
including the Diversity and Civic Leadership program’s “Engage” civic engagement
survey, which helped Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community leaders collect,
analyze, and report data to city and government officials; the Asian Pacific Islander
Community Leadership Institute, a program that builds leadership skills and
addresses racial disparities facing API communities; and the Cover Oregon
Outreach and Enrollment program, which assists APIs in accessing health
insurance. In addition, AFC has several ongoing outreach programs, including
afterschool programming that supports school-age students’ academic achieve-
ment; programs that assist families in preparing children younger than five years
old for school; anti-poverty programs that help families stay in their homes and
keep their utilities on; and more. To learn more, visit <www.irco.org>.
The Asian Reporter Foundation is accepting nominations
for its 2015 “Exemplary Community Volunteer” awards.
The recognition banquet will be held Thursday,
April 23, 2015 at northeast Portland’s TAO Event Center.
Nomination forms and award guidelines are available
for download at <www.ARFoundation.net>.
The nomination deadline is Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 5:00pm.
The Asian Reporter Foundation’s 17th
Annual Scholarship & Awards Banquet features:
Most Honored Elder Awards
Hawaiian dinner
Exemplary Community Volunteer Awards
Cultural entertainment
College Scholarship Awards
Silent auction