Four children from the Holy Family Home orphanage in Osaka, Japan, were welcomed to Honolulu on Thursday with dozens of lei placed on their shoulders by soldiers of the 27th Infantry Regiment Wolfhounds.
Their arrival marked the 74th year of an annual tradition in which four children from the orphanage spend two weeks living with military host families on Oahu. Organizers said the experience allows disadvantaged children the opportunity to experience island life while promoting international peace and strengthening the bond between Hawaii and Japan.
“It’s often described in their words as the trip of a lifetime,” said Alan Okami, president of the nonprofit Peace Bridge, which facilitates the annual home-stays. “Some children who are now adults refer to this trip as something they’ve never had anything like in their life.”
The volunteer-based nonprofit Peace Bridge is dedicated to perpetuating the partnership between the Wolfhounds and the Holy Family Home orphanage. It was founded by the late Master Sgt. Hugh O’Reilly, a member of the Wolfhound regiment.
On Christmas Day 1949, O’Reilly donated gifts and supplies to the orphans at Holy Family Home. The donations became an annual tradition, and in 1957 O’Reilly arranged the first home-stay experience, which has continued ever since. When he died in 2007, Peace Bridge was formed to carry on his legacy.
Peace Bridge says it is the U.S. Army’s longest-running military-civilian partnership of its kind.
The four children participating in this year’s home-stay are 12-year-olds Riona Matano and Himeno Eirai, and 13-year-olds Motohisa Takagi and Riku Nagamune.
This year’s home-stay is the first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s something that defines us as Wolfhounds, so it’s just great that we can return to that and continue this tradition and make sure that we don’t lose that connection between the Holy Family Home and the Wolfhounds,” said First Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Ryan Case.
During the three-year hiatus, the Wolfhounds continued to send letters and holiday gifts to the orphans. Last fall, six Wolfhounds traveled to Osaka to spend the day with the children there, Case said.
“I just hope that they see that we still remember them, we still remember what this means to them and that we are their gentle Wolfhounds,” he said.
Some of the activities planned during the home-stay include touring military bases, taking on a military obstacle course and visiting Bishop Museum and Waikiki.
Evan Weeks and Jennifer Stager, who are hosting Matano and Eirai during their first week here, said they were looking forward to showing the girls around the island and sharing each other’s culture. They are thinking of taking them to Dole Plantation, the beach and horseback riding along with their 16-year-old daughter, Jacinda, and 9-year-old son, Jameson.
Jacinda has been studying Japanese in school for the last two years and said she plans to practice her Japanese skills with the girls and maybe teach them some English words as well. Meanwhile, Jameson wants to go boogie-boarding at the beach.
“We just hope that they feel blessed with the opportunity to come here and just enjoy it and have fun,” Jennifer Stager said.
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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
Correction: A previous version of this story assigned an incorrect rank to Master Sgt. Hugh O’Reilly.
