MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Youngsters from the Yahata Children’s Home spent a day alongside Marines and sailors from Marine Wing Support Squadron 171 during an annual festive community relations event here Dec. 16.
MWSS-171 has shared benevolence with the home for over ten years, hosting the kids for Christmas functions every year.
“It gives them (the children) an opportunity to see another culture and how we celebrate our holidays – Christmas is not a normal holiday to them,” said Mrs. Claus, who brought smiles to children’s faces during the fun-filled day.
During the community relations event, individual Marines and sailors were given the opportunity to adopt a kid for a day. The service members took the children around station, exchanged gifts, ate at Crossroads food court and played games.
“This is one of the coolest things I have done in a while,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Zach Wells, MWSS-171 corpsman and native of Lander, Wyo., who bought his “adopted” daughter a notebook with pens. “These kids are a lot different than other Japanese kids I have met. They know exactly what they want and have a certain independence about them. They are all running around bright eyed and bushy tailed - you don’t see that very often.”
Wells’ adopted daughter for the day agreed. “I liked everything about the whole day,” said Ayano Kazuko, 14, with a blushing smile.
Some of the service members and children also went to the library for a children’s book reading from Mrs. Claus, who was dressed up in her classic red outfit. Mrs. Claus read a variety of books and taught the children English from a book describing the letters of the alphabet through pictures.
“I tried to keep it simple because of the language barrier,” said Claus. “The combination of English words and visual pop-ups helped them understand what the words mean. Everyone enjoyed themselves and they all walked out with a grin.”
It was those glowing grins that showed just how much this event meant to the children, who are not orphans, but come from troubled homes.
“This may be a significant time in these children’s lives, where they associate positive thoughts to not only Christmas, but Americans and Marines,” said Lt. Gregg R. Peters, MWSS-171 chaplain and native of Detroit. “That positive image is one of the reasons we do community relations events. We want to demonstrate to our host nation that we are grateful guests.”
According to Peters, the community relations event was a success for not only the children, but also for the Marines and sailors who enjoyed hanging out with the kids.
“I felt honored that we could carry out a tradition of having a good relationship with them and spoiling them for a couple hours,” said Peters. “There was a ton stuff going on, but everyone had a really good time.”