I received a response tonight from Dr. Yasuhiko Kaji, a retired physician from Toledo, Ohio. Dr. Kaji has spent more than 30 years collecting personal items from American veterans and their families and attempting to return those items to their owners. He reviewed the photos I had posted and provided a slightly different translation for the person for which I have the most information - Takeshi Maruyama. He indicated that the name likely reads "Takeyuki" instead of "Takeshi", but he did confirm that the letter was from Renko Maruyama, who is probably his sister.
Dr. Kaji offered to post the photos I have on his web site - http://www.hlswilliwaw.com/Nishiha/english.htm - and said I was on the right track by contacting the Office of Foreign Affairs - Planning Division of War Victims' Relief in Japan.
Based on the experiences of others who have taken this journey, it could take months, even years, for the agency to locate any family members, if they are able to find anyone at all. I'm on about day 5, so I've got a while to wait I think! In the mean time, I'm going to continue researching the items I have and I will be adding more to the site soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment