The baseball team from Konan High School, Okinawa, emerged from the dramatic final game as the winner of the annual National High School Baseball Championship for spring 2010. There is an untold story behind this victory.

When, much to the dismay of the players, the team's scheduled flight for Ishigaki Island for a match was canceled because of foul weather, U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa offered to transport the players on a military helicopter. I wish to let not only Japanese but also Americans know of this episode, which has not been reported by the Japanese media. Particularly, I would like our American friends to know that relations of friendship and trust, as exemplified by this incident, exist between our two peoples.

No one can predict how the current friction between Japan and the United States over the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, in Ginowan City, Okinawa, is going to be settled. Everybody seems nonplussed and to be simply waiting to see what will happen.