OKINAWA, JAPAN — After Claudia King’s father Jack King died in 2010, she and her sister Sabine Middlemass went through his belongings and came across a discovery: two Japanese school textbooks and a notebook in his book collection.
Jack had served as a Seabee with the United States Naval Construction Battalions during World War II and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, from June 1944 to January 1946. Claudia assumed these must have been artifacts he had taken during his time there.
“I didn’t have the heart to throw them away, so I held on to them for the past 14 years,” Claudia said. “About a month ago, you know how sometimes you procrastinate on things, I decided to Google if there were any Japanese historical associations that might be interested in these artifacts.”
Jack King in front of his tent in Okinawa where he worked as a Seabee.
Contributed / Claudia King
Google eventually led Claudia, of Seattle, to the Fukuyama America Historical Research Society and to chairman Alex Kishaba. The organization specializes in aiding the return of items taken by servicemen who were stationed in Okinawa during the war. Kishaba said that sometimes they’ll take the items and search for family members who they can return them to or if the item is of cultural significance, they’ll return it to the appropriate museum.
“In many cases, like this one, it’s a family member who ends up with these items after the individual has passed,” Kishaba said. “Many families in those cases either just junk them away, especially these old books. Or they’ll put them on the internet up for auction. If you look online, you’ll see a lot of these items for sale.”
Kishaba said in the early days of his organization, he would travel around the U.S. to veterans reunions to speak on the importance of returning the items back to Okinawa.
“So many of these things are useless to them, like books, letters, souvenirs that just collect dust,” Kishaba said. “But they can mean so much to the families.”
Kishaba and his organization were able to identify the notebook’s owner by running stories in the local newspapers. The books belonged to Miyazato Kiyomatsu and it was a group of his former agricultural students who saw the story and reached out to help connect the dots.
From there, Kishaba found the late professor’s wife Mieko and son Hiroshi and held a ceremony to officially return the items to the family. Claudia and her sister attended the ceremony via Zoom and found out their family had a few connections.
Both Jack and Kiyomatsu went into education. Following the war, Jack, a Denfeld High School graduate, went to the University of Minnesota Duluth for education and taught math in California for several years. Kiyomatsu became a professor of agriculture.
Both married and had children. Most coincidentally, both men had grandchildren who attended Santa Clara University in California.
“When they mentioned that, I just about fell out of my chair,” Claudia said. “I mean, think of the coincidence of that? They were on campus at the same time as well. My sister went there too.”
Kishaba said that the items were among 148 items that have been returned to families since the organization began 40 years ago.
“That’s not much considering the whole island was a battleground that lost 200,000 people here during the war,” Kishaba said. “The only profit that comes from this work is seeing the joy of the people when it happens.”
Claudia said if her father were still alive today, he’d be happy to know the items were returned.
“It was a very moving ceremony, to see these artifacts go to the rightful owners after 79 years was amazing,” Claudia said.
Claudia said she knows the importance of personal artifacts as she has a collection of around 200 letters that Jack wrote to his mother while serving overseas.
“You can tell he’s very homesick and all he wants to hear is more information about Minnesota,” Claudia said. “I love being able to get this glimpse of what he was like as a young man. I’m glad I was able to help this family also get that glimpse of their father as a young man.”
Teri Cadeau is a features reporter for the Duluth News Tribune. Originally from the Iron Range, Cadeau has worked for several community newspapers in the Duluth area, including the Duluth Budgeteer News, Western Weekly, Weekly Observer, Lake County News-Chronicle, and occasionally, the Cloquet Pine Journal. When not working, she’s an avid reader, crafter, dancer, trivia fanatic and cribbage player.
AloJapan.com