Photo By Vivian Blakely | Sumie Maruyama (left) instructs her student, Mary Anna Fox, on how to properly hold...... read more read more
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Mass Communication Specialist Vivian Blakely
NAVAL AIR FACILITY ATSUGI, Japan – “To provide for the health, welfare and quality of life for all personnel while enhancing community relations through respect, fellowship and charitable events throughout the local communities.”
The above statement is part of Naval Air Facility (NAF) Atsugi’s command mission. Although the installation may be small, it is full of extraordinary individuals who work constantly to uphold the command’s mission. Sumie Maruyama is one of these individuals.
“She is all over the base,” said Emily Fernandez, a tea ceremony student of Maruyama. “She’s involved in so much. She is a definite asset to NAF Atsugi.”
A native of Nagano, Japan, Maruyama has been working at NAF Atsugi for nine years in various positions.
“I love working here for NAF Atsugi,” said Maruyama. “I love my sailors, they are all my heroes. I feel very lucky.”
Currently working as a community relations specialist for the Host Nation Relations office, Maruyama has many skills and manages many tasks in and out of that job title.
To some, she is known as a volunteer coordinator, Bon Odori dance instructor, or a tea ceremony master and instructor.
Courtney Pollock, another of her tea ceremony students, described her as an ambassador for the Japanese culture and traditional arts.
“It is pretty amazing to study under someone who is well experienced in the tea culture,” she said. “It’s beautiful to watch her perform because she has so much experience and she is so graceful.”
As a volunteer coordinator, Maruyama has coordinated with certain local schools to allow Sailors to come and converse with their
“I want the sailors to experience Japan while they are stationed here,” said Maruyama. “Two-thirds of sailors are sea-duty, so they miss a lot of great culture, traditions and festivals even though they are stationed in Atsugi. I would like to give them the opportunity to interact with the Japanese people. I want them to actually feel as if they are living in Japan.”
She has also managed several community clean-up projects in different areas such as the monthly Yamato Train Station, Kinrin Park graffiti clean-up near Sagamino Train Station and the Masano Orphanage cleaning in Fujisawa.
The challenge, however, is not finding volunteer opportunities for sailors, it’s being able to integrate them into the Japanese society so that Sailors may work together with the Japanese as a community.
“That’s what Sumie does,” said NAF Atsugi’s Public Affairs Officer, Greg Kuntz. “Sumie creates the bridges to allow us as Americans to work side by side on the things that the Japanese already do. She teaches and helps us to understand their culture and helps the Japanese to see that Americans are very much like them – people who care about the environment, who care about the public, who care about each other.”
For all of her efforts, Maruyama has earned three awards in the past year alone, being recognized by not only the NAF Atsugi command twice, but that of Command, Naval Region Japan as military labor contractor of the year.
“Maruyama is a sincere person,” said Kuntz. “She is always very direct and very honest and she does it all with the same level of enthusiasm. That is why she is good at what she does.”
| Date Taken: | 04.20.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.10.2013 01:12 |
| Story ID: | 106699 |
| Location: | AYASE, AICHI, JP |
| Web Views: | 127 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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