Latest news with #fishingboat
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
No passengers found in overturned vessel on Lake Oconee
The Brief Emergency crews found a capsized fishing boat in Lake Oconee; no one was inside the vessel. Marine 9 personnel towed the sunken boat to shore to prevent hazards for other lake users. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources will handle the removal of the vessel from the lake. GREENE COUNTY, Ga. - Emergency crews responded to Lake Oconee on Sunday morning after a fishing boat was found capsized in the middle of the lake. What we know According to Greene County Fire Rescue, officials searched the immediate area around the vessel searching for those who may have been aboard. Upon arrival, crews confirmed that no one was inside the overturned vessel. Marine 9 personnel successfully towed the sunken boat to shore to eliminate any hazards for other boaters and tubers in the area. What we don't know It was not immediately clear who owned the vessel. What's next The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has been notified and will coordinate the removal of the vessel from the lake. The Source The details in this article were provided by the Greene County Fire Rescue.
Japan Times
14-05-2025
- General
- Japan Times
Former Vietnamese refugee says he is thankful for Japan after 45 years
A 63-year-old man who fled Vietnam 45 years ago by boat thanks Japan for helping him survive and build his life without fear of a war. The native of now-defunct South Vietnam, whose Japanese name is Takashi Hashimoto, boarded a small bamboo boat crowded with 24 people, including children, in the central city of Da Nang in March 1980, after the Southeast Asian country was reunited by North Vietnam following the fall of Saigon, the then capital of the U.S.-backed South, to mark the end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975. "My father was jailed (after the war) as a political criminal, and I couldn't go to school much," he recalls. "I had no human rights or freedom." Before Hashimoto left, his mother gave him $30, half of his family's entire wealth, telling him to get by on it. The journey to seek refuge was extremely tough. Parched and starved, everyone on the boat managed to survive by catching and eating birds. "Water entered from gaps between the bamboo whenever a big wave struck, and (the boat) could have capsized at any moment," he recalls. A week after leaving Da Nang, the crew of an Okinawan fishing boat rescued the refugees. People rescued by the crew of an Okinawan fishing boat and brought ashore at Naha Port in April 1980. The 12th person from the right is Hashimoto. | Takashi Hashimoto / via Jiji "I felt I'd die if I didn't get on that ship," Hashimoto said. "The captain and others cooked rice and fish for us until the vessel returned to Okinawa. They saved my life." The fishing boat docked in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, in April 1980. Hashimoto spent three years in a refugee camp in the town of Motobu. He initially thought of his family back in Vietnam and felt lonely but gradually got used to life there thanks to assistance from the Japanese government and locals, who taught him how to harvest sugar cane and farm eels. "Motobu is my spiritual hometown," he says. He continues to donate to the town even now. Hashimoto moved to Tokyo in June 1983 to work, feeling that he had to live on his own. He made a living working for a glass processing company and a printing firm. In 1995, he obtained Japanese nationality. "My life had gradually become stable, making me want to live with pride as a Japanese," Hashimoto says. Since 2000, he has worked as a Japanese-Vietnamese interpreter in Tokyo. "I love Japan, which is peaceful and has no discrimination," he says. "I, of course, have feelings for Vietnam, but I plan to spend the rest of my life in Japan."
