Naha, August 24 - Mr. Michael J. Kurtz, Archivist from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) explained how the United States Government declassifies government documents and makes them available to the public before a crowd of approximately 100 people at the Okinawa Prefectural Archives. Mr. Kurtz' presentation was widely reported in the local press prior to the event and his lecture drew many ordinary citizens along with dozens of professional educators, librarians and archival researchers.

After the presentation, there was a lively Question and Answers session that covered a such wide ranging topics as NARA's education programs, accessing U.S. records pertaining to Okinawa and the contents of NARA's John F. Kennedy collection.