Thousands greet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he visits a World War II battlefield in PNG

By Jemima Garrett and PNG correspondent Liam Cochrane and staff 

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited a Second World War battlefield in East Sepik Province as part of his two-day state visit to Papua New Guinea.

Thousands of people greeted his party as they flew in to the provincial capital Wewak before travelling to the peace memorial and the Brandi battlefield.
3,000 school children lined the streets in their uniforms to welcome Mr Abe and his large entourage.
The Aitape-Wewak campaign was one of the final campaigns in the Pacific theatre of World War II.
It is the first time in 29 years that a Japanese prime minister has travelled to PNG and Mr Abe was joined by a 150-strong business delegation.
Mr Abe met his PNG counterpart Peter O'Neill and key government ministers in Port Moresby on Thursday.
Jenny Hayward-Jones, director of the Myer Melanesia Program at the Lowy Institute, says Mr Abe's visit is intended as a reminder of Japan's role in the region.
"This visit is a big signal to the region, and also to China, that Japan still has a stake in the region," she said.
"Its trade and investment interests are strong, and it has a political interest if its prime minister is prepared to spend two days in PNG and bring a huge delegation with him."
Earlier this week Mr Abe used a speech to the Australian parliament to remind his audience of Japan's long-standing links with PNG.

Horrors of war must never be repeated, says Japanese

AFP

PORT MORESBY: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Friday said the horrors of war must never be repeated as he visited a World War II battlefield in Pacific nation Papua New Guinea.
As many as 200,000 Japanese soldiers died during the brutal New Guinea campaign and Abe headed to the northern town of Wewak to honour all those who perished, where he was greeted by thousands of well-wishers.
He was also due to visit Cape Wom, the site of the Japanese Army’s surrender in PNG on the final day of a Pacific swing that also took him to New Zealand and Australia.
“We must not repeat the horrors of the war,” he said after laying flowers at a memorial, the Kyodo News agency reported.
“I pledged in front of the spirits of the war dead that Japan wants to be a country that thinks about world peace with its friends in Asia and around the world.”
His comments come at a time of heightened regional tension over Japan’s wartime record, with China and South Korea in particular raising concerns that Abe’s right-wing government is failing to face up to the country’s history of aggression.
Both China and South Korea were the object of Japan’s imperialist aggression in the 20th century and were outraged last year when Abe paid homage at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours war dead including several high-level officials executed for war crimes after World War II.
Japan’s use of sex slaves during its colonial expansion across Asia also still rankles China and South Korea.
While mainstream Japanese opinion holds that the wartime government was culpable, a small but vocal tranche of the political right – including Abe – continues to cast doubt, claiming the brothels were staffed by professional prostitutes.
Abe’s comments in PNG echoed those made in Australia during a historic address to a joint sitting of parliament in which he said Japan “is determined to do more to enhance peace in the region and peace in the world”.
The remarks came just days after Japan relaxed restrictions on the use of its armed forces in a controversial change in military policy that irked China.
Tokyo has formally endorsed a reinterpretation of a constitutional clause banning the use of armed force except in very narrowly-defined circumstances. — AFP

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2014/07/12/horrors-of-war-must-never-be-repeated-says-japanese/#ixzz37IM65F2J

Abe returns home after visiting New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea

Global Post

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to Japan on Saturday after making a weeklong three-nation tour of New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

During the trip, Abe held summit talks with the prime ministers of each country -- New Zealand's John Key, Australia's Tony Abbott and Papua New Guinea's Peter O'Neill -- over such topics as trade and security.

==Kyodo

For a cleaner and safer Port Moresby

I received this note and picture from my good mate, Ron Gawi, who concurs with me on a cleaner and safer Port Moresby and PNG for all:

"Good afternoon bro. I continue to support you on your efforts at raising awareness on the state of filthiness of Port Moresby especially 'buai pekpek'. 
"See attached picture of a distasteful indecent graffiti painted across a fence opposite the Weigh Inn Hotel in Konedobu and can be seen going downhill from Burns Peak as you are passing the RPNGC headquarters looking straight ahead to the left and on a corrugated iron fence. 
"This repugnant graffiti has been there for many months and nobody seem to care or have any sense of decency, least of all NCDC to get do something about this disgraceful vandalism seen by the travelling public including overseas visitors.
"As a decent citizen, I will buy a can of grey spray paint this weekend and rid the wall of this embarrassing graffiti. 
"But my concern is who is responsible for this type of corrective actions ?
"Have a good weekend.

"Ron Gawi."

357 days to go

357 Days To Go Before the Pacific Games on July 4, 2015: Driving past Gordon Market this afternoon, while taking my kids out shopping, we came across smelly sewerage openly pouring out onto the road between the market and Gordon Police Barracks, something we thought had long been attended to.

358 days to go

358 Days To Go Before the 2015 Pacific Games on July 4:  2015:Walking to Waigani yesterday, I come across the drain which flows into the Sir John Guise Stadium - main venue of the 2015 Pacific Games - which reeks of smelly sewerage and is chock-a-block with plastic and other trash. 

Are we going to leave this till the last minute?

Abe reinforces Pacific relations as China seeks island toeholds

By Makiko Yanada / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer 

 China’s maritime expansion goes far beyond repeated intrusions into Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture and territorial disputes with the Philippines and Vietnam, as the nation has been reaching for Pacific island nations, which have thus far been under the influence of the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

China has adopted an anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategy against U.S. forces, in which it establishes a so-called first island chain that extends from Honshu to Okinawa, past Taiwan and on to the Philippines, and a second island chain that stretches from Guam to Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. Palau and other island countries can be found in between the first and second island chains.
For China, the Pacific island states are strategically vital as they offer anchorage sites for China’s warships in the vast Pacific Ocean. On the back of great capital resources, China has been trying to win over local governments of those countries through financial support for constructing government buildings and other public facilities.
Resource development by Chinese firms has also been promoted at a rapid rate in such countries. China also deepened military exchanges with Papua New Guinea and Fiji through reciprocal visits by high-ranking military officials and other actions.
Amid such a situation, relevant countries such as Japan, the United States and Australia feel an increasing sense of caution against China because, should the current situation continue, the Pacific Ocean could become the “sea of China.”
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe chose Papua New Guinea as one of his destinations during his first Oceania tour over strong concern regarding China’s expansion. At a summit meeting between Abe and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, scheduled for Thursday, they are expected to agree to bilateral cooperation mainly in the development of natural gas.

Abe also is seen to announce that Japan will provide support for building and improving infrastructure in the country through official development assistance programs.
Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand have begun taking measures to strengthen maritime security cooperation by setting up a Pacific defense ministers’ meeting with Papua New Guinea and other countries last year, in addition to the Pacific Islands Forum, where leaders of Australia, New Zealand and 14 small island countries and territories meet.
The United States launched a fund to preserve the environments in Pacific island nations in March, while also gearing up support from the U.S. Coast Guard for maritime patrol activities by those island countries.