ID :
50679
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 12:22
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/50679
The shortlink copeid
Ex-U.S. soldier returns photo from WWII battlefield to Japanese kin
+
BOSTON, March 15 Kyodo -
Frank Hobbs, an 85-year-old former U.S. soldier, returned a photograph and
other personal belongings of a Japanese soldier from Iwoto Island, a major
battlefield in World War II, to the latter's daughter in Boston on Saturday 64
years after the end of the war.
The belongings of Matsuji Takekawa, who died at the age of 37 in the Battle of
Iwojima, as the island is more commonly known, in the Pacific Ocean, were
returned to his daughter Yoko, 64, who currently lives in New Jersey.
The Japanese soldier was the owner of a liquor shop in Sanjyo, Niigata
Prefecture, when he was drafted and sent to the war.
The items include a photo of Yoko taken on her 100th day after birth and a
drawing of an air-raid drill by Yoko's older sister Chie, now 72, when she was
second grader, and an envelope in which the items were contained.
Yoko received the items at Hobbs's house in Boston.
''I felt his cordiality as he treasured them for a long time. I will take back
them to our home in Niigata,'' she said.
A tearful Hobbs expressed his delight, saying he was happy to find the
soldier's relatives after continuous efforts looking for them despite being
asked to donate the items to a museum.
According to the Japanese Consulate General in Boston, the belongings that U.S.
soldiers took from such battlefields were often Japanese swords and flags, and
it is rare for a U.S. soldier to keep a photo and drawing and to return such
things.
The belongings were returned after Hobbs asked the Japanese Ministry of Health,
Labor and Welfare to find the original owner of the envelope, which bore an
address, in September through his wife Merge's Japanese friend.
Hobbs was drafted when he was a student, and landed on Iwojima in March 1945.
He found the envelope protruding from the pocket of the Japanese soldier as he
lay in front of a cave, and took it with the permission of his superior
officer.
Hobbs had preserved by the items by laying them in lavender and putting them in
a frame, but recently came to think that he wanted to return them to the
owner's relatives while he is still alive.
==Kyodo
2009-03-15 20:55:22
BOSTON, March 15 Kyodo -
Frank Hobbs, an 85-year-old former U.S. soldier, returned a photograph and
other personal belongings of a Japanese soldier from Iwoto Island, a major
battlefield in World War II, to the latter's daughter in Boston on Saturday 64
years after the end of the war.
The belongings of Matsuji Takekawa, who died at the age of 37 in the Battle of
Iwojima, as the island is more commonly known, in the Pacific Ocean, were
returned to his daughter Yoko, 64, who currently lives in New Jersey.
The Japanese soldier was the owner of a liquor shop in Sanjyo, Niigata
Prefecture, when he was drafted and sent to the war.
The items include a photo of Yoko taken on her 100th day after birth and a
drawing of an air-raid drill by Yoko's older sister Chie, now 72, when she was
second grader, and an envelope in which the items were contained.
Yoko received the items at Hobbs's house in Boston.
''I felt his cordiality as he treasured them for a long time. I will take back
them to our home in Niigata,'' she said.
A tearful Hobbs expressed his delight, saying he was happy to find the
soldier's relatives after continuous efforts looking for them despite being
asked to donate the items to a museum.
According to the Japanese Consulate General in Boston, the belongings that U.S.
soldiers took from such battlefields were often Japanese swords and flags, and
it is rare for a U.S. soldier to keep a photo and drawing and to return such
things.
The belongings were returned after Hobbs asked the Japanese Ministry of Health,
Labor and Welfare to find the original owner of the envelope, which bore an
address, in September through his wife Merge's Japanese friend.
Hobbs was drafted when he was a student, and landed on Iwojima in March 1945.
He found the envelope protruding from the pocket of the Japanese soldier as he
lay in front of a cave, and took it with the permission of his superior
officer.
Hobbs had preserved by the items by laying them in lavender and putting them in
a frame, but recently came to think that he wanted to return them to the
owner's relatives while he is still alive.
==Kyodo
2009-03-15 20:55:22
