Children of Soga elementary school in Matsuyama interacted with Jujiro’s descendants.
Descendants of Alaska pioneer adventurer Jujiro Wada (1875-1937) visited Ehime Prefecture on 3 days from November 23.
On the 25th, the descendants interacted with about 75 children of Soga Elementary School in Hinode-cho, where Jujiro spent his childhood.
Jujiro’s descendants Sean O’Hare and Ryan O’Hare’s brothers came from San Jose, USA.
The elementary school students sang the songs that Matsuyama City Theater Company Mikan Ichiza performed when they performed a musical in Alaska.
When asked by the children about Jujiro’s episode, the descendants introduced, “Jujiro helped the ship that was wrecked.”
Miyu Kikuchi said, “I respect Jujiro. I was very happy to interact with the descendants. I want to know more about Jujiro.”
Sean was also pleased, “The musical story is a dream come true and has a positive impact on children.”
The three also visited the riverside park of Hinode town, where the Jujiro Wada memorial monument was built, and interacted with members of the NPO Jujiro Wada memorial association.

Again a rotating exhibition is held by Uchiko Town featuring paintings by the late Toshio Wada, grandson of Wada`s only brother.

Until end of Oct, a changing selection of his paintings can be seen. He passed away last year November at the age of 93. He took a keen interest in painting also as a member of The Uchiko Committee for Lovers of Painting, and studied painting under Mr. Nakaoka in 1997. From then, every year during the Uchiko Culture Festival/Summer Festival Art Exhibition he had paintings exhibited all from the 1st Collective Hobby Painting Exhibition until the 17th edition. From 2013 and onward up till last year he had each year 3 of his paintings exhibited every year at the “Let’s Paint Our Surroundings” Exhibition.

An annual event that honors Jujiro Wada and his legacy was held in Matsuyama.

Jujiro Wada Association set up an information board next to his monument and held its unveiling ceremony. After that, we presented the international website.

The paper guidebook was renewed with new reports of events added. Representative Mikio Ueoka has miraculously recovered from a serious disease and made it to today`s event.

The first part of internet broadcast Honmaru News Dogo Yamatoya, in Japanese, has been uploaded. Please check at
http://honmaru-radio.com/category/honmarudogoyamatoya/

The second part will be available end of February.

Last year September representatives from JWMA visited San Jose to meet with the (great) grandchildren of Jujiro Wada and also to his place of death San Diego.

This has become the topic of a newspapers articles published in the Ehime Newspaper February 2nd and 3rd.

Mikio Kaminaga, who did the editing for the book
by Yuji Tani about Jujiro Wada’s life, A samurai running to aurora , now has published a book Unfinshed pilgrimage, by publisher Yama to Keikoku-sha. Over several meals with the author we learned that through his being chief editor for the magazine Yama to Keikoku, Mountains and Valleys, he has strong ties to adventurers, so he introduces various stories and deeds of 6 adventurers in this book.

Today a study meeting on human rights was held at Soga Public Hall, in which a representative held a lecture about Jujiro Wada.

We appreciate that attention was good, with a full house of 60 people.
Topics were how Wada met with abuse discrimination, but coped with it, exceeded it, and kept challenging.

As joint effort with local support we feel supported to keep involved in future activities. Discrimination of minorities and other forms of discrimination should not exist, as we are all human beings.

We want to strive for a society where everyone respects each other and can live together.