The Asian reporter., September 04, 2017, Page Page 7, Image 7

SPORTS
September 4, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Back on top: Japan beats Lufkin, Texas, 12-2 for LLWS title
TOKYO TOPS TEXAS. Japan’s Keitaro
Miyahara (#10) is greeted by teammates after
hitting a solo home run off Lufkin, Texas pitcher
Chip Buchanan in the fourth inning of the Little
League World Series Championship baseball
game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
“Just like I told them, I’ll take full credit
for that,” Maddux said. “We didn’t make
some adjustments that we should have.
You can’t hang your head because (Japan)
beat you. They’re a great baseball team,
but we are, too.”
But it was Japan’s day. After Arai slid
across the plate with the 12th run, his
teammates leaped out of the dugout to hug
him near home plate, jumping up and
down in celebration.
Miyahara’s home run in the fourth came
after he fouled a ball off his left leg and was
evaluated by the trainer before stepping
back into the batter’s box.
“I was in pain,” Miyahara said. “But
going through all that tough practice in
Tokyo, I learned how to focus and forget
about that pain and just focus on hitting
the ball.”
Japan manager Junnji Hidaka also led
the Tokyo team that won the Little League
World Series in 2015. When asked to
compare the two clubs, he gave the nod to
this year’s group of players.
“This team is a little more of a tight-knit
group,” Hidaka said through an inter-
preter. “A lot more happier team.”
By Matt Martell and Jack Dougherty
The Associated Press
S
OUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. —
The crack of the bat, the gasp from
the crowd, a fist pump on the trip
around the bases and then a happy hop to
waiting teammates at home plate.
Japan went through the routine three
times in the fourth inning of the Little
League World Series (LLWS) champion-
ship game as Daisuke Hashimoto, Keitaro
Miyahara, and Natsuki Yajima homered,
turning a tight game with Lufkin, Texas,
into a 12-2 rout.
Tsubasa Tomii buckled down after
allowing two first-inning home runs,
finishing with nine strikeouts in a game
that was stopped in the bottom of the fifth
inning after Japan went ahead by 10 on
Yajima’s single to right field to score Seiya
Arai.
“We were thrilled after we won the
Japanese region before we came here,”
Miyahara said through an interpreter.
“But now getting to this level and
becoming the Little League World Series
champions this year, it can’t get any better
than this.”
The title marks the 11th time a team
from Japan has won the Little League
World Series, five of which have come in
the last eight years. Tokyo Kitasuna, the
club representing Japan this season, has
won three of the last six.
Lufkin had a six-run comeback victory
over Greenville, North Carolina, in the
U.S. championship game to reach the
final. And early on, it looked as though the
team’s momentum would carry through
the championship.
Japan had allowed only one run in the
tournament heading into the final game,
but that changed when Chandler Spencer
crushed the first pitch over the left-center
field fence.
Hunter Ditsworth cracked an opposite-
field homer down the right-field line to put
Lufkin up 2-0 with one out in the first. But
Miyahara laced a two-run triple with two
outs in the second to tie it at 2-2, and
Ryusei Fujiwara fisted a single to right to
bring Miyahara home.
Lufkin manager Bud Maddux, who
has coached youth baseball for 41 years
and won 10 total championships, came
just short of the most coveted title in
Little League. He blamed himself for the
loss.
Civilian drills grow lax among South Koreans used to threats
NO REAL PREPARATION. A woman passes by Dae Han Moon
Gate during a civil-defense drill at City Hall in Seoul, South Korea. Kim
Dae Young, a military expert at the Korea Research Institute for National
Strategy, said the drills are failing to equip people with even basic infor-
mation, such as how and where to evacuate and how to secure drinking
water and other supplies during a crisis. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Continued from page 2
Kim Dae Young, a military expert at the Korea
Research Institute for National Strategy, said the drills
are failing to equip people with even basic information,
such as how and where to evacuate and how to secure
drinking water and other supplies during times of crisis.
Noh Sang-yeol also was among those who did not know
the shelter closest to his home. The 65-year-old said
there’s a need to strengthen training programs because
the current drills are doing “nothing at all” to prepare
people.
“I read from the newspapers that people in Japan,
Guam, or Taiwan are preparing well and even stacking up
on food in case of emergency, and that made me think
whether I should begin buying water or battery supplies,”
he said.
An official from Seoul’s Ministry of Interior and Safety
said that although South Korea is considering whether its
civil-defense programs should be strengthened, it would
be impossible to bring quick changes.
“These drills are intended for the entire nation and
changes can’t be made overnight by one or two people
sitting on a desk,” said the official, who didn’t want to be
named, citing office rules. “There should be close and
comprehensive studies on people’s willingness to
participate and their awareness of national security
issues before we could specifically determine what kind of
training would be possible.”
The air-raid drill followed North Korea’s two
intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July and its
threat to lob missiles toward Guam in August. The
government had planned to send military planes over
major cities emitting colored smoke to simulate an attack,
but the flights were cancelled in Seoul and many other
areas due to heavy rain and low clouds, according to the
interior ministry.
Government workers during the drill distributed
leaflets instructing people what to do during an attack,
which included recommendations to prepare gas masks,
raincoats, and soap in case of nuclear, biological, or
chemical attacks. It also reminded people to evacuate to
the higher floors of buildings, instead of subway stations
or parking garages, in case of chemical attacks.
The civil-defense drill coincided with a large-scale joint
military exercise between Washington and Seoul that ran
through August 31. The annual exercise has predictably
drawn a verbal outburst from Pyongyang, which claims
the war games are an invasion rehearsal.
The lax civilian drills bother experts, who say stronger
training is crucial, especially for the 25 million living in
Seoul and its neighboring metropolitan areas. They would
only have minutes to respond to incoming North Korean
missiles or artillery shells.
The practices of the 1970s and ’80s won’t return, but
experts say the drills should at least focus on giving people
practical skills in rescue and evacuation.
Even the South’s emergency infrastructure is lacking,
Survivor of Nagasaki
bomb dies at age 88
Think you’re
an organ and
tissue donor?
Not if you haven’t
told your family.
Continued from page 3
undershirt off to show his scars, to
describe his painful past, and tell the
world the tragedy should never be
repeated.
He said he wanted no one else to have
to suffer the pain of nuclear weapons.
His health declined in the past few
years from age and illnesses.
In his video message in July, Taniguchi
welcomed the U.N. nuclear weapons
prohibition treaty, but expressed
concerns about the declining population
of the survivors, known in Japan as
hibakusha. “I wonder what the world will
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bombing survivor.”
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said Kim, the military expert. Aside from a few facilities in
small border islands that have occasionally seen military
skirmishes between the Koreas, South Korea’s civilian
shelters are not equipped to handle attacks involving
nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, Kim said.
“The government should start building bunkers that
could withstand nuclear attacks in Seoul and the
neighboring metropolitan area,” Kim said. “Civil defense
needs to become a more important part of the national
defense strategy as North Korean threats grow.”
The ministry official, however, said upgrading
thousands of shelters to protect against such attacks
would be financially implausible.
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MEDIUM
Difficulty
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level: Medium
# 27
#75439
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Puzzle #54837 (Easy)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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