.c Kyodo News Service
September 6
Service at a cemetery in Havana on Sunday for Cubans of Japanese ancestry, held in commemoration of the centennial of Japanese emigration into the country.
The names of five first-generation Japanese-Cubans who died this year were read out by Francisco Shinichi Miyasaka, head of the association for Japanese-Cubans. Miyasaka is the son of a first-generation Japanese-Cuban from Nagano Prefecture, central Japan.
''We hope we can hold such an event every year from now on,'' Miyasaka said.
Japanese Ambassador to Cuba Saburo Tanaka told participants, ''Japanese-Cubans have won respect of Cubans with their sincerity and diligence.''
According to the association, about 1,100 Japanese-Cubans, from first to fifth generations, live in Cuba.
AP-NY-09-06-98 1955EDT
Copyright 1998 The Kyodo News Service.