Award for Paul K. Maruyama

Japan Imperial Decoration The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette conferred upon Mr. Paul Kuniaki Maruyama, President of Japan America Society of Southern Colorado

Mr. Paul Kuniaki MARUYAMA

The Consulate-General of Japan in Denver is pleased to announce that Mr. Paul Kuniaki MARUYAMA, President of the Japan America Society of Southern Colorado, has been named as one of the recipients this year of the Japan Imperial Decoration, The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette.

Mr. Maruyama has been contributing to the promotion of cultural exchange between our two countries for a long time, and is a founding member of the Japan America Society of Southern Colorado and the John Manjiro Whitfield Foundation in the USA. He has made personal contributions toward mutual understanding between our people through teaching as well, as an instructor of Japanese language and Judo. He was the first Japanese language instructor at the US Air Force Academy and still teaches at Colorado College. As an athlete, he accomplished this also as a member of the US Judo team at the Tokyo Olympics and taught Judo as a national team coach.

A conferment ceremony for the award will be held at the Residence of the Consul General in Denver in due course. The Consulate-General of Japan at Denver is honored to offer its sincere congratulations to Mr. Maruyama for this deserved recognition of his long service.

Source: http://www.denver.us.emb-japan.go.jp/en/culture/topics/2013/04292013.html

Colorado College? Danged hippie!

Seriously, congratulations to Maruyama-sensei on his his prestigious award. And I loved his book, Jerry-sensei, thanks for loaning me your copy.

BillC wrote:Colorado College? Danged hippie!

Seriously, congratulations to Maruyama-sensei on his his prestigious award. And I loved his book, Jerry-sensei, thanks for loaning me your copy.

More information on this award, from Maruyama-Sensei.

Quote - FYI, you probably know this, but this makes me the third member of the 1964 Olympic Judo Team to receive the Imperial Award (Yosh Uchida and Ben Campbell have been honored in the past.)

Also, just FYI, my father was decorated posthumously and my late uncle was also decorated (my father's brother who was a school principal in Nagano). I'll bet there haven't been many cases where the father (my dad) was decorated as a Japanese citizen while the son (me) was decorated as a foreigner! Unquote

FYI - Bill, both the English and Japanese version of Maruyama-Sensei, that I owned, are on loaned to other people. Hopefully I will get them back.

Fantastic judoka, I had the experience of being chucked around by him a couple of times at the USOTC in Colorado Springs.

He also was (probably still is) a runner. As in Pike's Peak Marathon type runner...