Historic colonial-era shoplots in Bongawan destroyed by fire
Three rows of pre-World War II wooden buildings were razed in an early morning fire on Tuesday (June 10).
Kimanis Fire and Rescue Station chief Nelson Ponji said they received a report of the fire at about 5.38am.
Firefighters from Kimanis, assisted by the Papar and Beaufort fire stations, rushed to the scene.
"All three rows were completely destroyed in this fire," he said, adding that no injuries have been reported.
Several vehicles were also affected.
Nelson said firefighters brought the fire under control by 7.30am and remained on site to complete ground works.
Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.
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Herald Malaysia
a day ago
- Herald Malaysia
Japan's war-bereaved families remain committed to peace
On 80th anniversary of WWII, Nippon Izokukai rededicates itself to ensure the tragedy of war is never repeated Jul 05, 2025 A member of Japan's war-bereaved families delegation throws flowers into Taiwan's Bashi Channel during an offshore memorial ceremony in January 2024, to honor relatives lost at sea during World War II. (Photo courtesy of Nippon Izokukai) By Keiko Kurane On June 1, about 220 descendants of the war dead in Japan embarked on an 11-day voyage through the Taiwan Strait to the Philippines to offer prayers for relatives who died at sea during World War II. 'The longing to know our fathers led us to learn about the paths they took, the war itself, and the damage and loss left behind in the former war zones,' says Toshiei Mizuochi, chairman of Japan War-Bereaved Families Association, or Nippon Izokukai . During the latest journey, offshore memorial ceremonies were held, and workshops were conducted to train future 'peace storytellers' who will carry forward the Memorial Friendship and Exchange Project. The project has been the centerpiece of a mission launched in 1991 by Nippon Izokukai with the Japanese government's support. Nearly 450 memorial trips have been conducted since the project's inception. 'The desire has been unceasing,' Mizuochi said at a July 1 press conference in Tokyo. 'To set foot on the land where our fathers fell, to honor them wholeheartedly there, this is how we hoped to truly know who our fathers were, fathers about whom we dared not ask our mothers, who were busy with back-breaking work just to survive,' he added. Of the approximately 2.4 million Japanese soldiers who died overseas during the war, around 300,000 were lost at sea, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Mizuochi, as the head of Japan's largest organization of war-bereaved families, called for preserving memories of wartime suffering and renewing commitments to peace as the country marks 80 years since the end of World War II. Many families faced severe hardship after Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. Families who lost their breadwinners barely had time to grieve. With the end of the war, the bereaved families no longer received government pensions or financial support.'Widows worked day and night to support aging parents and young children, while bereaved families faced discrimination simply because their loved ones died in the war,' Mizuochi recalled.'These were the war dead who went to war as a matter of national policy,' he in 1953, Nippon Izokukai aimed to restore the honor of the war dead and support families who lost not only loved ones but also their livelihoods and social Covid-19 pandemic disrupted Nippon Izokukai's activities and succession plans as elderly members were unable to gather, causing some local chapters to response, the organization launched the Peace Storytelling Project nationwide to train younger members, including those in its youth division established in 2011, which now has around 10,000 said its mission remains unchanged: to remember the war dead, recognize the sacrifices of war, and pass down those memories as peace storytellers.'The children of the war dead initially hoped for financial support as compensation for their suffering. But over time, we thought long and hard about what we truly wished for, and what remained hidden in our hearts. That desire was to discover our roots, to know our fathers,' Mizuochi Izokukai has managed and operated the Memorial Friendship and Exchange Project with the dual purpose of honoring the fathers who died in war zones and fostering friendship and exchanges with people in former war-torn than 16,000 children of the war dead have traveled to former battlefields to honor their fathers and meet people in communities once devastated by the conflict. The oldest participants in the recent voyage through the Taiwan Strait to the Philippines were in their 90s. 'As the first-generation participants are now aging, this project and the associated tours will conclude during this fiscal year,' Yoko Hosogai, the public relations manager of Nippon Izokukai, told UCA the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews, and nieces who accompanied the children of the war dead on those tours now have a renewed commitment to sustain and pass on their sentiments.'They also aim to continue engaging with the former war zones to understand the damage wrought there,' she project has also led to humanitarian in 1999, Nippon Izokukai funded the construction of three elementary schools in Myanmar, following its observation of local children's struggles with inadequate learning environments.'We learned that while many children in Myanmar are eager to learn, they are prevented from doing so due to impoverished school environments. There were concerns about flooding during the rainy season, which led to malaria and mosquito infestations,' Mizuochi said the idea emerged during a 1997 tour of an elementary school in Yangon.'I was there as the head of the delegation, presenting school supplies to the children alongside others,' he recalled. Mizuochi noted that Nippon Izokukai continues to support these schools despite being unable to visit due to Myanmar's ongoing political crisis. 'Many of us, children of the war dead, had given up our education to help with family businesses due to a lack of funding. We deeply empathized with this situation and wished to help by contributing funds for school renovations,' he said Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine deepened Nippon Izokukai's commitment. Images of Ukrainian children sheltering from air raids reminded many members of their own childhoods during wartime Japan, prompting the organization to release a statement opposing the war and send support to Ukraine.'That war was not seen as an attack on someone else. It built momentum to pass our memory to today's children and to oppose war,' he said. This has led to further expansion of the Peace Storytelling Project, together with the next generation. Plans are underway to invite individuals from former war zones who participated in past exchanges to Japan as part of this initiative, creating new opportunities for dialogue and reconciliation. Hosogai told UCA News that the younger generation is determined to carry on these efforts.'This is how the next generation will sustain and inherit the war memory. This plan is currently in the works, and it reflects how we seek to balance honoring the dead while continuing to build friendships and exchanges,' she said. 'Our responsibility is to continue this endeavor until the 100th year after the end of the war,' Mizuochi added, pledging that Nippon Izokukai will remain dedicated to sharing wartime memories so the tragedy of war is never repeated.--ucanews,com
The Star
5 days ago
- The Star
‘Keep going, Ale'
IN 2018, British journalist Dom Phillips embarked on a 17-day journey into the Javari Valley – a remote and barely-accessible expanse of indigenous land in the western Brazilian Amazon. He was tracking signs of an uncontacted group increasingly threatened by illegal activity. It was a gruelling 1,050km expedition by boat and foot – across slick log bridges, through snake-infested jungle and suffocating heat. Yet the river, when it reappeared, brought moments Phillips would later describe as 'exquisite loveliness'. More than the forest's raw beauty, he was captivated by the indigenous guides' deep knowledge of its rhythms – and by the quiet resolve of Bruno Pereira, the expedition leader and a respected official with Brazil's indigenous protection agency, Funai. Phillips saw in him a rare public servant: not indigenous himself, but fiercely committed to defending indigenous rights and lands. Pereira navigated the Javari's maze of waterways and tribal tensions with instinctive ease. When Phillips returned to the region in 2022 to research a book, it was to document how an indigenous patrol, led by Pereira, was defending this lawless territory. But their work – and their lives – came under direct threat. In June 2022, the two men were murdered by an illegal fishing gang. Yet, the story they were trying to tell did not die with them. A huge moment in Dom's life Friends, fellow journalists and family members have since completed Phillips' unfinished manuscript. The result is How to Save the Amazon: A Journalist's Deadly Quest for Answers, stitched together over three years through crowdfunding, grants and determination. The Javari expedition first featured in a 2018 piece Phillips wrote for The Guardian and it opens the book as a pivotal moment in his reporting life. 'It was a huge moment in Dom's life,' said Guardian correspondent Jonathan Watts, who co-authored the book's foreword and contributed a chapter. 'It was a natural starting point – and also maybe fate.' In June 2022, when news broke that two men had vanished in the Amazon, Watts was among the first to hear – but mistakenly thought the missing reporter was Tom Phillips, another Guardian journalist. Tom quickly published the first in a long series of reports on the case – but not before phoning his family to reassure them. He later joined the frantic search, tracing remote rivers in the desperate days before hope ran out. Where is my friend? Joining him was photographer Joao Laet, a longtime collaborator and close friend of Dom. His striking images of the missing journalist would be shared worldwide – but behind the lens, Laet was falling apart. 'It felt like a trance,' he recalled. Amid weak Internet, constant deadlines and colleagues falling sick with Covid-19, he pushed through on autopilot, haunted by one thought: 'Where is my friend?' Tears came only after work ended, when exhaustion and grief collapsed into restless sleep. On June 15, 10 days after the pair disappeared, authorities recovered their bodies. A suspect confessed to ambushing them during a boat journey, then led police to the burial site. Phillips was 57. Pereira was 41. Their murders drew rare international attention to the violence roiling the Amazon. According to investigators, they were killed in retaliation for Pereira's work protecting indigenous land from illegal fishing and mining. In November 2024, Brazilian prosecutors formally charged the alleged mastermind – a man accused of arming and financing the killers. It could have been any of us For Tom, discovering Dom's press card and notebooks deep in the jungle brought the horror home. 'It could have been any of us,' he said. But with the grief came purpose. 'In some ways, it's therapeutic – to keep doing the work, to have a clear mission. To finish this book. And to keep reporting the hell out of the Amazon.' Copies of the book 'How to Save the Amazon' by Dom Phillips & contributors for sale inside a bookshop in central London on June 6, following its launch. — AFP The book team quickly secured Dom's files – digital drafts, audio recordings and his meticulously-kept notebooks. Contributors began dividing up the material, digging through scribbled shorthand and interviewing those Dom had spoken to in the field. For his chapter, Tom retraced one of Dom's 2022 trips to Yanomami territory – another vast, remote region as fraught as the Javari. Decoding his colleague's notes felt like 'breaking a code', he said, but the narrative slowly emerged. Dom and Tom now share a chapter credit, exploring both the destructive push for Amazonian riches and hopeful efforts, such as a cacao-growing project helping locals earn a sustainable income. Most of the book follows that dual thread – exposing conflict while searching for solutions. Through Dom's eyes By the time Dom returned to the Javari in 2022, the region had become a hotspot for criminal syndicates – drug traffickers, land grabbers, poachers, illegal ranchers and loggers all jostling for control. His widow, Alessandra Sampaio, said he often described the book not just as a journalistic investigation, but as a way to forge an emotional bond between readers and the rainforest – a place he felt intensely connected to. 'I knew the Amazon through Dom's eyes,' she said. For every reporting trip, he sent her detailed itineraries, voice notes, photos and forest reflections. 'Ale, one day you'll come with me,' he would often tell her. In 2023, Sampaio finally did – joining a government mission to the Javari Valley, symbolic of President Lula da Silva's pledge to restore state presence in the lawless region. Indigenous leaders there continue to demand deeper structural reform. One moment stayed with her. An indigenous man embraced her and called her 'family' – reminding her that in their world, family means mutual care and commitment. That, Sampaio said, sealed her decision. A legacy in ink Like so many families left behind after violence, Sampaio has been pulled into the cause through grief. She now heads the Dom Phillips Institute, supporting young indigenous storytellers and conservation efforts. Her only request to the book's contributors was simple: keep Dom's original, hopeful title. Only the subtitle was changed – as he had inevitably become a central character in the very story he set out to write. 'One thing Dom always told me was, 'Keep going, Ale',' she said. 'Every time I wonder if I can go on, I hear his voice: 'Keep going, Ale'. And I do.' — ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Sinar Daily
27-06-2025
- Sinar Daily
Bone collectors: Searching for WWII remains in Okinawa
ITOMAN - Trekking through mud and rocks in Japan's humid Okinawan jungle, Takamatsu Gushiken reached a slope of ground where human remains have lain forgotten since World War II. The 72-year-old said a brief prayer and lifted a makeshift protective covering, exposing half-buried bones believed to be those of a young Japanese soldier. This photo taken on June 11, 2025 shows Takamatsu Gushiken, a volunteer who recovers the remains of war dead to be reunited with their families, holding the personal effects of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II, at his office in Ginowan city, Okinawa Prefecture. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP) "These remains have the right to be returned to their families," said Gushiken, a businessman who has voluntarily searched for the war dead for more than four decades. The sun-kissed island in southern Japan on Monday marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa. The three-month carnage, often dubbed the "Typhoon of Steel", killed about 200,000 people, almost half of them local civilians. Since then, Japan and the United States have become allies, and, according to official estimates, only 2,600 bodies are yet to be recovered. But residents and long-time volunteers like Gushiken say many more are buried under buildings or farm fields, or hidden in jungles and caves. Now rocks and soil from southern parts of Okinawa Island, where the bloodiest fighting took place, are being quarried in order to build the foundations for a new US air base. The plan has sparked anger among Gushiken and others, who say it will disturb the remains of World War II casualties, likely killed by Americans. And while Okinawa is a popular beach getaway these days, its lush jungles have preserved the scars of combat from March to June 1945, when the US military stormed ashore to advance its final assaults on Imperial Japan. Full skeleton Walking through meandering forest trails in Itoman district, on the southern end of Okinawa, Gushiken imagined where he would have hidden as a local or a soldier under attack, or where he may have searched if he were an American soldier. After climbing over moss-covered rocks on a narrow, leafy trail, Gushiken reached a low-lying crevice between bus-size boulders, only big enough to shelter two or three people. He carefully shifted through the soil strewn with fragmented bones, shirt buttons used by Japanese soldiers, a rusty lid for canned food, and a metal fitting for a gas mask. At another spot nearby, he and an associate in April found a full skeleton of a possible soldier who appeared to have suffered a blast wound to his face. And only a few steps from there, green-coloured thigh and shin bones of another person laid among the dried leaves, fallen branches and vines. "All these people here... their final words were 'mom, mom'," Gushiken said, arguing that society has a responsibility to bring the remains to family tombs. Gushiken was a 28-year-old scout leader when he was first asked to help search for the war dead, and was shocked to realise there were so many people's remains, in such a vast area. He didn't think he could bring himself to do it again, but over time he decided he should do his part to reunite family members in death. This photo taken on June 11, 2025 shows Takamatsu Gushiken, a volunteer who recovers the remains of war dead to be reunited with their families, speaking during an interview with AFP at his office in Ginowan city, Okinawa Prefecture. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP) 'Every last one' After the war ended, survivors in Okinawa who had been held captive by US forces returned to their wrecked hometowns. As they desperately tried to restart their lives, the survivors collected dead bodies in mass graves, or buried them individually with no record of their identity. "They saw their communities completely burned. People couldn't tell where their houses were. Bodies dangled from tree branches," said Mitsuru Matsukawa, 72, from a foundation that helps manage Okinawa Peace Memorial Park. The site includes a national collective cemetery for war dead. Some young people have joined the efforts to recover remains, like Wataru Ishiyama, a university student in Kyoto who travels often to Okinawa. The 22-year-old history major is a member of Japan Youth Memorial Association, a group focused on recovering Japanese war remains at home and abroad. "These people have been waiting in such dark and remote areas for so many decades, so I want to return them to their families -- every last one," he said. Ishiyama's volunteering has inspired an interest in modern Japan's "national defence and security issues", he said, adding that he was considering a military-related career. The new US air base is being built on partly reclaimed land in Okinawa's north, while its construction material is being excavated in the south. "It is a sacrilege to the war dead to dump the land that has absorbed their blood into the sea to build a new military base," Gushiken said. Jungle areas that may contain World War II remains should be preserved for their historic significance and serve as peace memorials to remind the world of the atrocity of war, he told AFP. "We are now in a generation when fewer and fewer people can recall the Battle of Okinawa," Gushiken added. "Now, only bones, the fields and various discovered items will remain to carry on the memories." - AFP
