The EWC’s AsiaPacificEd Program for Schools launched the AsiaPacificEd Crossings Website and educational initiative. This online resource, established just prior to the APEC Summit in Honolulu, has already enabled more than 1,400 K-12 students and educators from 48 schools in eight APEC economies (Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and United States) to explore and connect with the Asia Pacific region. 

The East-West Center community has been saddened to learn that former EWC President Everett “Ets” Kleinjans passed away on April 30 at a care home in Michigan.

A linguist who taught in China and Japan before joining the Center in 1967 as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Kleinjans then became EWC’s Chancellor from 1968 to 1974. After helping to guide the Center through independent incorporation, he became its first President in 1975, serving until 1980. Subsequently, he taught at Hawai’i Pacific University and worked for a number of years in Cambodia before returning to his home town of Holland, Michigan.

On April 29, the Government of Japan conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays on EWC Adjunct Project Specialist Robert Toshio Nakasone in recognition of his contributions to the promotion of friendly relations and mutual understanding between Japan and the United States.

EWC Obuchi Project Specialist Robert NakasoneNakasone founded the Hawaii Uchinanchu Business Group in 1993, and later went on to establish the Worldwide Uchinanchu Business Association in 1997, expanding the network to 22 chapters around the world.  In doing so, he successfully brought together global entrepreneurs and small Okinawan-ancestry business owners, promoting not only U.S.-Japan exchanges but exchanges worldwide.

The East-West Center expresses its sadness over the passing of Emeritus Senior Fellow Meheroo Jussawalla following a long illness. After a very distinguished career in her native India, Meheroo joined the East-West Center’s Communications Institute in 1977 and was a pioneer in developing the field of information economic. After she formally retired, she remained active in East-West Center projects and activities.

By Charles E. Morrison

(Note: This commentary originally appeared in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Sept. 12, 2012)

It may not compare to APEC or the G-20 for global economic weight, but for the Pacific island nations, the annual Pacific Islands Forum summit is the premier regional meeting. It brings together heads of the island nations (including Australia and New Zealand) with representatives of international organizations and “dialogue partners,” including the United States, China, Japan and many others. For the Cook Islands, with less than 15,000 residents, hosting last week’s PIF was a rare event made especially significant by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unprecedented stop to attend the post-meeting partner dialogue ­– the highest level U.S. participation ever.

Governor and Mrs. Ariyoshi with Rick Tsujimura, EWC Board of Governors' Chairman, at the EWC award banquet.The East-West Center honored the Honorable George R. Ariyoshi, former Governor of the State of Hawai'i, with the presentation of the Asia Pacific Community Building Award for his dedication to strengthening the bonds of understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Award recognizes outstanding leaders whose vision and professional and personal accomplishments exemplify the mission of the East-West Center.

By Edward J. Shultz

(Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Oct. 16, 2012)

The recent eruption of protests throughout the Muslim world points once again to the stability of our globe being threatened by people with the intransigence of fundamentalists. It was fundamentalists in the United States who produced a reprehensible video vilifying the Islamic faith, and it was fundamentalists throughout the world who took to the streets to protest this affront to their faith and culture. In East Asia we are witnessing a somewhat similar escalation of tensions as fundamentalists in China, Korea and Japan push these three countries down an increasingly volatile path leading to growing animosities. And regrettably this is a verbal slugfest among U.S. allies and friends.

The East-West Center community was saddened to learn of the Nov. 4 passing of former EWC Board of Governors member Tai Yu-Lin (also known as Wu Yu-Lin), a pioneer in bilingual education. Serving from 1978 – 1984, she was the first Asian woman elected to the EWC Board.

Born in Northeast China in the 1920s, she was educated in Shanghai, as well as at the University of Malaya, Columbia University and later at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, where she began her language career.

Sen. Inouye with EWC students in 2007.

The East-West Center community is greatly saddened by the passing of Hawai‘i Senator Daniel K. Inouye, long one of the Center’s most avid supporters. EWC President Charles E. Morrison extended the EWC community’s heartfelt condolences to Senator Inouye’s family and loved ones.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of a great patriot and statesman who served his nation and state in many different capacities,” Morrison said. “Senator Inouye has always been the staunchest supporter of the East-West Center, not just in Washington, but also frequently interacting with participants and alumni. We will sorely miss him.”

Ambassadors Thomas Armbruster (Marshall Islands) & Helen Reed-Rowe (Palau), with PIDP Co-Director Sitiveni Halapua. On April 4, 2013 the U.S. ambassadors to the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands participated in an informal discussion at the East-West Center intended to launch a broad-ranging conversation about the future of U.S. engagement with the freely associated Pacific island nations. Participants included policymakers, Pacific island scholars and public intellectuals. Topics included the future of the freely associated states in the regional system, migration, institution building and new paradigms for engagement. 

HONOLULU (April 24, 2013) -- Last month in Singapore, the East-West Center realized a four-year goal to gather ASEAN-wide young environmental leaders to create collaborative project proposals in what was deemed ““an incredible, innovative, and enriching workshop” by Eric Watnik, the Public Affairs Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore. 

Fifty-seven alumni from the Study of the US Institutes (SUSI) at East-West Center and University of Montana Mansfield Center (UMT) spent three intensive days crafting proposals for the chance to win $25,000 from the U.S. State Department’s Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund. 

EWC Emeritus Scholar Lee-Jay Cho has been awarded Japan’s prestigious Order of the Rising Sun (Gold Rays with Rosette), for his contributions to “the enhancement of economic relations between Asian countries, including Japan, and the U.S., and the promotion of research exchanges in the field of demography."

With doctorate degrees in economics and demography from Japanese universities and a third Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago, Dr. Cho formerly served as director of EWC’s Population Institute, as well as executive vice president and president pro tem. In the 1960s and ‘70s, he was an advisor to the governments of Malaysia and the Republic of Korea on population, human resources and urban issues, and he has long served a Chairman of the Northeast Asia Economic Forum.

The East-West Center community is saddened by the death former EWC President Victor Hao Li, who passed away on Sept. 18 in Oakland, California, at the age of 72.

Born in Hong Kong, Dr. Li taught Chinese and international law at the University of Michigan, Columbia and Stanford before serving as President of EWC from 1981-1989.

The East-West Center community is saddened by the death of former EWC Board of Governors member Thomas S. Foley, a U.S. congressman from Washington State for three decades, speaker of the House from 1989 to 1995, and later Ambassador to Japan.  Foley, who passed away Oct. 18 at age 84, served on the EWC board from 1995 to 1997. 

The East-West Center community is saddened by news of the recent passing of the Center’s first leader, Murray Turnbull, and longtime arts and exhibits coordinator Jeanette "Benji" Bennington.

"Murray Turnbull was the father of the concept of bringing the young people of the Asia Pacific region together, and the East-West Center was established because of him," said EWC President Charles E. Morrison. "And Benji was an incredible, invaluable resource during her decades of service at the Center. She embodied the EWC spirit, and her legacy remains with us all.”

Navigating a Future for the East-West Center

By Charles E. Morrison

Keynote address at the EWC/EWCA International Conference

Naha, Okinawa
17 September 2014

The 2014-2015 Pacific Islands Women in Leadership (WIL) Program held its capstone workshop in Suva, Fiji, May 17-23, 2015.  The weeklong program allowed the participants to reconnect with each other as well as make new connections within the Pacific Region.

The group reported on the status of the projects they started upon returning home after the initial program workshop held in Honolulu in October 2015.  Two of the participants from Fiji shared their projects with the WIL group with site visits.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 25, 2015) – Nine college students from the Pacific Islands and Timor-Leste who are studying in Hawai‘i on East-West Center-administered scholarships are wrapping up six-week internships in Washington, D.C. designed to offer them professional experience and help expand their understanding of American society.

Remarks of East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison

Friends of the East-West Center Annual Meeting
Nov. 9, 2016

Thank you Puongpun, for a generous introduction. I also want to thank the Friends of the East-West Center for inviting me to speak and all of you for coming.

Leadership fellows from the 2016-17 cohort of East-West Center’s Asia-Pacific Leadership Program, spent a week recently volunteering their technical assistance for the Parinaama Development Foundation in India's Odisha state.

HONOLULU (July 23, 2019) -- The East-West Center community was saddened by the passing on July 14 of former EWC Vice President Wesley T. Park, who was in his eighties. A well-known Honolulu business leader and supporter of the arts, he served as the Center’s VP of Administration between 1982 and 1989.

Longtime EWC Director of Administration Ricky Kubota, who was first hired at the Center by Park as a budget analyst, remembers him as “a ‘no-nonsense’ type of guy who expected the work he assigned to be completed — no excuses. While that meant a ton of evening and weekend hours, Wesley led by example because he was in the office too.”

HONOLULU (Aug. 28, 2019) -- Journalism students from Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi and the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi met recently in Nepal for a two-day dialogue about cross-border media collaboration. The six Indian and Pakistani students were joined by three Nepali journalism students for the dialogue in Kathmandu, which was moderated by EWC media alumnus Kunda Dixit, Editor and Publisher of the Nepali Times.

HONOLULU (October 22, 2019) -- The East-West Center community has been saddened to learn of the passing on October 20 of former Dean of Students and longtime Center supporter Sumi Makey. Generations of EWC alumni carry warm memories of Sumi as a caring mentor over the course of her several decades leading the Center’s student and Open Grants programs, which she helped to establish, and later as an active supporter and donor. (Read Sumi’s EWC oral history.)