Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 7, 1 July 2007 — Returning the souls [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Returning the souls

Heidi Kai Guth | ŪHA Native Rights advūcate S Hōkūle'a crewmember A

^HBnms year, when the families of the nine T I I victims of the Ehime Maru tragedy returned I I I -M_ to Hawai'i for the sixth anniversary and the I I | seventhyearofthevictims'deaths, animportantyear J I for Buddhists, Tatsuyoshi Mizuguchi, the families' I gracious spokesperson and the father of the only I victim whose body has never been found, asked [ Nāinoa Thompson to sail the souls of those victims I home to Uwajima during Hōkūle'a's voyage to and I through Japan. Nāinoa took the request personally, I and when he told crewmembers about it, we felt the I inexpressible kuleana settle on us as well. I On their journey with Hōkūle'a, the spirits of I the Ehime Maru victims sailed from O'ahu through I See S0ULS ūn pags IG I

H0L0M0ANA • V0YAGING

SŪULS

Cūntinuad fram paga II Micronesia, saw Okinawa raised from the sea, and traveled up the Japanese island ehain home to their own island, in their sea, with their school, their families and friends. Arriving home at last, they were greeted by the new Ehime Maru, part of a settlement with the U.S. Navy, welcoming them and Hōkūle'a into the port of Uwajima. As a crew, we tried our best to properly memorialize the occasion, especially during a ceremony at the Uwajima Fishery High School, where eaeh of the victims' family was presented with a beautiful kāhili. However, I don't think any of us felt we did it exactly right, and many

times during our stay in Uwajima, the families and community comforted us instead of the other way around. The Mizuguchis even threw us a huge dinner, replete with many toasts and mueh laughter, and ended the meal and event with group shots of everyone. We were all teasing and jostling, including the Mizuguchis, when Yuka Mizuguchi took out a framed photograph of her lost son, Takeshi, so he could be in the pictures and part of the fun with us. Our hearts all stopped; our faces and voices froze. The Mizuguchis kept smiling, though. Yuka reached over to one of our tearyeyed crewmembers, Kana Uehino, and told her "Smile, Kana, smile." Every day that I was part of the voyage was an honor, but the time in Uwajima, when the souls from the Ehime Maru eame home, has put my heart in debt for a lifetime. S