2 Pinoys dead in Pearl Harbor shooting

PEARL HARBOR - Two Filipinos were killed after a US sailor opened fire at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii last week, authorities said.

They were identified as Vincent Kapoi Jr., 39, and Roldan Agustin, 49, both Defense department employees. Kapoi was a metals inspector apprentice while Agustin was a shop planner.

Another Defense department employee Roger Nakamine, 36, was injured and is still recovering at a hospital.

The gunman was identified as Gabriel Antonio Romero, a 22-year-old machinist’s mate auxiliary fireman, who took his own life following the shooting.

“The entire shooting took approximately 23 seconds before he killed himself," said Charles Anthony, a member of the Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs Office.

The shooting unfolded on Dec. 4, Wednesday, three days before the 78th anniversary of the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that left more than 2,400 US service members dead.

Investigation is ongoing but authorities believe the incident was not tied to domestic terrorism.

“There's a lot of rumors and things and unofficial stuff that's floating around out there, but I mean, I'm just not able to confirm a whole lot at this point because as I said, the investigation is ongoing," Anthony said.

Relatives of the victims asked for privacy but the Kapoi family shared that a service is being planned for Dec. 15. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

2 killed in shooting at Pearl Harbor base days before Japanese attack anniversary

LOS ANGELES - A US sailor fatally shot two people and wounded a third at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii on Wednesday before taking his own life, a senior Navy officer said.

The base was locked down for more than an hour after the shooting, according to a statement issued by the facility, while Navy officials said they were investigating what prompted the attack.

"I can confirm that there were three shooting victims. We have confirmed that two are deceased, one is in stable condition in a local hospital," said Rear Admiral Robert Chadwick.

He added that the shooter -- "tentatively" identified as a sailor assigned to the USS Columbia, a Los Angeles-class attack submarine -- had also died after "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound."

One witness told local media he was sitting at his computer when he heard shots fired and rushed to the window, where he saw three victims on the ground.

The witness, who did not want to be identified, said he then saw the gunman, who was wearing a sailor's uniform, shoot himself in the head.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said that US President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting and was monitoring the situation.

Hawaii governor David Ige tweeted that the "White House has reached out to offer assistance from federal agencies, and the state is standing by to assist where necessary."

"I join in solidarity with the people of Hawaii as we express our heartbreak over this tragedy and concern for those affected by the shooting," Ige wrote.


Pearl Harbor anniversary

The shooting took place at 2:30 pm local time near the south entrance of the sprawling base located on the southern shore of Oahu.

The base hosts both the Navy and Air Force.

It unfolded three days before the 78th anniversary of the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that left more than 2,400 US service members dead.

The worst shooting in Hawaii history took place just over 20 years ago when a Xerox employee killed seven of his colleagues.

While gun violence is common in the United States, shootings at American military facilities in the country are relatively rare.

In July 2015, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez carried out an attack at two military installations in the US state of Tennessee that killed four Marines and a sailor, with the FBI concluding that the violence was inspired by a "foreign terrorist group."

Two years earlier, Aaron Alexis killed 12 people and wounded eight others at the Washington Navy Yard, just two miles (three kilometers) from the US Capitol building, before being shot dead by officers. 

Four years before that, Major Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at Fort Hood.

He was considered a "lone wolf" who supported terror network Al-Qaeda. 

In 2016, the Pentagon softened rules on US troops carrying firearms while at government facilities in response to a series of deadly attacks on uniformed personnel.

Troops already carried weapons as part of certain job functions, but the new rules permitted commanders to authorize the carrying of privately owned handguns.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Abe's Pearl Harbor pilgrimage underlines US-Japan ties

HONOLULU - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels Tuesday to Hawaii's Pearl Harbor, the site of a sneak attack by his country that provoked America into joining World War II, to reinforce what the leader calls "the power of reconciliation."

Abe will be hosted by US President Barack Obama, who quits office next month. That means Abe will soon lead Japan into uncharted waters, after incoming US president Donald Trump clouded the guiding stars of US-Japanese ties.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Obama was pushing for and that Abe made the heart of his economic strategy has been torn up by the president-elect.

And, at least on the campaign trail, Trump has even called into question the US security guarantees that shielded Japan through the Cold War and later the rise of China.

In eight years, Obama -- America's Hawaiian-born first "Pacific president" -- never made the headway he wanted in his vaunted "rebalance to Asia" diplomatic strategy.

But he and Abe chose a telling spot to celebrate US-Japanese partnership, 75 years after the "day of infamy," December 7, 1941.

The Japanese sneak attack on an unsuspecting US fleet moored at Pearl Harbor turned the Pacific into a cauldron of conflict.

The attack had been prepared in secret by Japan for months, but was over within two hours.

Japanese warplanes came out of nowhere to sink much of the US fleet and leave 2,400 sailors and Marines dead.

A reluctant America was drawn into the war already raging in Europe and its colonies, a war that ended after US atom bombs razed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Post-war cooperation, however, has healed many wounds.

In May, Obama visited Hiroshima to pay his respects, and on Tuesday Abe will become the first Japanese premier to visit the wreck of the USS Arizona.

The leaders will head by boat to a white-walled memorial positioned over the sunken vessel, still lying in the clear blue waters of the harbor where 1,177 of its crew died.

Only five of the Arizona's crewmen are still alive and, while the memorial remains a tourist draw, in Hawaii the divisions of war have given way to a shared present.

"Hawaii has a very multi-ethnic population with a very large Japanese population," Stanley Chang, a 34-year-old Democratic member of the Hawaii state senate told AFP.

"I don't think there is any feeling of antipathy towards the Japanese, 75 years after the attack."

Today, Obama's home state has a reputation as one of the most multi-ethnic and multi-cultural in the union.

'REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR'

Today, December is peak tourist season in balmy Hawaii, and the American First Family is partway through its annual Christmas break on the islands.

But the scene was grim in 1941 when Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto maneuvered six aircraft carriers to within 240 miles (386 kilometers) of Oahu and unleashed two waves of dive bombers.

The US Pacific fleet, formerly Japan's main rival in the region, lost 21 warships and 328 planes.

Hundreds of sailors drowned when the USS Oklahoma, still lashed to the quay, pitched onto its side and trapped them.

Before the attack, the US isolationist campaign's cry of "America first!" -- now revived as Trump's slogan -- found a ready ear among voters wary of embroilment in Europe.

But after Pearl Harbor, US Congress declared war on Japan. Three days later Japan's European ally Nazi Germany declared war on the United States in turn.

The "America first!" slogan was quickly replaced on posters, in political speeches and in song by recruiters's refrain: "Remember Pearl Harbor."

Three-quarters of a century later, Abe wants to imbue the wartime rallying cry with a new resonance.

"'Remember Pearl Harbor' is a phrase that was once used to fuel animosity toward Japan among the people of America.

"The peoples of Japan and the United States were put in position to hate each other," he said.

"I hope the image of President Obama and I together visiting Pearl Harbor will serve to make the term 'Remember Pearl Harbor' symbolize the power of reconciliation."

The same force of reconciliation was on show in May, when Obama surveyed preserved ruins in Hiroshima and revived his Nobel-winning call for a world without nuclear weapons.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, was forced to backtrack during his campaign after he appeared to suggest Japan break a taboo and develop its own nuclear weapons.

Last week he again caused consternation when he blithely threatened to revive a Cold War-style arms race.

source: news.abs-cbn.com