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Japan Today
3 days ago
- General
- Japan Today
Japan's wartime children in Philippines search for kin, identity
Jose Villafuerte shows a photo of his father Ginjiro Takei, a Japanese imperial army officer, at his home in San Pablo, Laguna. By Cecil MORELLA After a lifetime of searching, Jose Villafuerte this month finally found the Japanese father he lost during the dark years of World War II in the occupied Philippines. The 82-year-old, a former gravedigger, was still in the womb of his Filipina mother, Benita Abril, when her partner, imperial army officer Ginjiro Takei, returned to Japan during its brutal occupation of the archipelago from 1942-45. His quest ended this month, days before the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, after an advocacy group found Takei's tomb in Japan, where he had raised a family following the war. A living half-brother and half-sister were also found, with DNA swabs sealing the family ties. "I'm excited. My mother had spent years trying to make this happen," Villafuerte, a slightly built father of eight, told AFP at his home in San Pablo city, south of Manila, ahead of his first visit to Japan. Escorted by his son, he lit a candle and prayed before his father's tombstone in the city of Takatsuki, between Kyoto and Osaka, on August 7. He met his half-brother Hiroyuki Takei for the first time a day earlier and now expects to get a Japanese passport, as well as visas for his children and grandchildren. Villafuerte is one of more than 3,000 nikkeijin, offspring of Japanese who were in the Philippines before or during World War II. Japan has in recent years begun helping in "recovering their identity", said Norihiro Inomata, country director for the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center (PNLSC). Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met Villafuerte and two other nikkeijin during a visit to Manila in April. However, only 100 or so are still alive more than two decades after the effort was launched in 2003, Inomata told AFP. The oldest is 97. "Time is running out," he said. 'Fate's design' "It was fate's design that I would be able to visit my father's grave. I am very much blessed, because I saw my brother and he guided me here to see the tomb of my father and their relatives," Villafuerte told reporters during the Takatsuki visit. His father Takei, a Japanese army engineer, worked on the Philippine railway system as part of the occupation forces but was sent home during the war, Inomata said. Growing up in postwar Philippines, Villafuerte was the target of merciless bullying, blowback from a conflict in which half a million of the Southeast Asian country's 17 million people were killed, most of them civilians. An obelisk stands in the Chinese cemetery in San Pablo as a memorial to more than 600 male residents rounded up by Japanese troops and bayoneted to death in February 1945. "People kept reminding me my father was an evil person who killed many Filipinos," Villafuerte said, adding that it nearly caused him to drop out of school. "It hurt, because it was never my choice to have a Japanese parent." Manila grocer Maria Corazon Nagai, an 82-year-old widow and mother of three, gave up her Philippine passport for a Japanese one last April with PNLSC's help. She told AFP that her Japanese father, Tokuhiro Nagai, a civil engineer, had lived with her mother in Manila during the war. "In my family, I was the only one who looked different," said Nagai, who quit school after sixth grade when family finances bottomed out following her father's post-war death. She went to live with her maternal grandmother when her mother remarried and began working as a sales clerk in her teens. "I'm happy now that I've found my identity," said the bespectacled, soft-spoken Nagai, who still tends a cramped stall selling shampoo, noodles and condiments in Manila's downtown Zamora market. Nagai said she hid her parentage as she reached adulthood to avoid the bullying she endured as a child. She was "relieved to learn my father was not a soldier" when she obtained her birth records at the civil registry in the 1990s. 'The past is the past' Before the invasion, small groups of Japanese migrated to the Philippines from the late 19th century to escape "overpopulation", with some marrying locals, said Inomata, the legal centre director. Their offspring went into a "spiral of poverty" when the state confiscated their assets after the war, and many were unable to obtain a formal education, he said. One male descendant hid in the mountains of the southern Philippines for 10 years after the war fearing he would be harmed, Inomata said. Views toward Japan began changing in the 1970s as Tokyo completed war reparations that helped rebuild the Philippines, and Japanese investors built factories and created jobs. The two countries are now security allies. Nagai has been unable to find any Japanese relatives and couldn't locate her father's grave during her 2023 trip to Tokyo, but she will fly to Japan for a second time later this year for a holiday. Though she does not speak the language, Nagai said she now considers herself Japanese. For Villafuerte, the situation is more ambiguous. "Of course, it is difficult being a Filipino for 82 years and suddenly that changes," he said. "The past is past, and I have accepted that this is how I lived my life." © 2025 AFP
GMA Network
3 days ago
- General
- GMA Network
Japan's wartime children in Philippines search for kin, identity
In this photo taken on August 8, 2025, Maria Corazon Nagai shows a photo of her father Tokuhiro Nagai, a civil engineer, at her home in Manila. Nagai, an 82-year-old Manila grocer, widow and mother of three, gave up her Philippine passport for a Japanese one last April with PNLSC's help. She told AFP that her Japanese father, Tokuhiro Nagai, a civil engineer, had lived with her mother in Manila during the WWII. (Photo by Jam STA ROSA / AFP) After a lifetime of searching, Jose Villafuerte this month finally found the Japanese father he lost during the dark years of World War II in the occupied Philippines. The 82-year-old, a former gravedigger, was still in the womb of his Filipina mother, Benita Abril, when her partner, imperial army officer Ginjiro Takei, returned to Japan during its brutal occupation of the archipelago from 1942-45. His quest ended this month, days before the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, after an advocacy group found Takei's tomb in Japan, where he had raised a family following the war. A living half-brother and half-sister were also found, with DNA swabs sealing the family ties. "I'm excited. My mother had spent years trying to make this happen," Villafuerte, a slightly built father of eight, told AFP at his home in San Pablo city, south of Manila, ahead of his first visit to Japan. Escorted by his son, he lit a candle and prayed before his father's tombstone in the city of Takatsuki, between Kyoto and Osaka, on August 7. He met his half-brother Hiroyuki Takei for the first time a day earlier and now expects to get a Japanese passport, as well as visas for his children and grandchildren. 'Time is running out' Villafuerte is one of more than 3,000 "Nikkei-jin", offspring of Japanese who were in the Philippines before or during World War II. Japan has in recent years begun helping in "recovering their identity", said Norihiro Inomata, country director for the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center (PNLSC). Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met Villafuerte and two other Nikkei-jin during a visit to Manila in April. However, only 100 or so are still alive more than two decades after the effort was launched in 2003, Inomata told AFP. The oldest is 97. "Time is running out," he said. 'Fate's design' "It was fate's design that I would be able to visit my father's grave. I am very much blessed, because I saw my brother and he guided me here to see the tomb of my father and their relatives," Villafuerte told reporters during the Takatsuki visit. His father Takei, a Japanese army engineer, worked on the Philippine railway system as part of the occupation forces but was sent home during the war, Inomata said. Growing up in post-war Philippines, Villafuerte was the target of merciless bullying, blowback from a conflict in which half a million of the Southeast Asian country's 17 million people were killed, most of them civilians. An obelisk stands in the Chinese cemetery in San Pablo as a memorial to more than 600 male residents rounded up by Japanese troops and bayoneted to death in February 1945. "People kept reminding me my father was an evil person who killed many Filipinos," Villafuerte said, adding that it nearly caused him to drop out of school. "It hurt, because it was never my choice to have a Japanese parent." 'I've found my identity' Manila grocer Maria Corazon Nagai, an 82-year-old widow and mother of three, gave up her Philippine passport for a Japanese one last April with PNLSC's help. She told AFP that her Japanese father, Tokuhiro Nagai, a civil engineer , had lived with her mother in Manila during the war. "In my family, I was the only one who looked different," said Nagai, who quit school after sixth grade when family finances bottomed out following her father's post-war death. She went to live with her maternal grandmother when her mother remarried and began working as a sales clerk in her teens. "I'm happy now that I've found my identity," said the bespectacled, soft-spoken Nagai, who still tends a cramped stall selling shampoo, noodles and condiments in Manila's downtown Zamora market. Nagai said she hid her parentage as she reached adulthood to avoid the bullying she endured as a child. She was "relieved to learn my father was not a soldier" when she obtained her birth records at the civil registry in the 1990s. 'The past is the past' Before the invasion, small groups of Japanese migrated to the Philippines from the late 19th century to escape "overpopulation", with some marrying locals, said Inomata, the legal centre director. Their offspring went into a "spiral of poverty" when the state confiscated their assets after the war, and many were unable to obtain a formal education, he said. One male descendant hid in the mountains of the southern Philippines for 10 years after the war fearing he would be harmed, Inomata said. Views towards Japan began changing in the 1970s as Tokyo completed war reparations that helped rebuild the Philippines, and Japanese investors built factories and created jobs. The two countries are now security allies. Nagai has been unable to find any Japanese relatives and couldn't locate her father's grave during her 2023 trip to Tokyo, but she will fly to Japan for a second time later this year for a holiday. Though she does not speak the language, Nagai said she now considers herself Japanese. For Villafuerte, the situation is more ambiguous. "Of course, it is difficult being a Filipino for 82 years and suddenly that changes," he said. "The past is past, and I have accepted that this is how I lived my life." — Agence France-Presse
The Star
3 days ago
- General
- The Star
Japan's wartime children in Philippines search for kin, identity
SAN PABLO CITY, Philippines: After a lifetime of searching, Jose Villafuerte this month finally found the Japanese father he lost during the dark years of World War II in the occupied Philippines. The 82-year-old, a former gravedigger, was still in the womb of his Filipina mother, Benita Abril, when her partner, imperial army officer Ginjiro Takei, returned to Japan during its brutal occupation of the archipelago from 1942-45. His quest ended this month, days before the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender on Aug 15, 1945, after an advocacy group found Takei's tomb in Japan, where he had raised a family following the war. A living half-brother and half-sister were also found, with DNA swabs sealing the family ties. "I'm excited. My mother had spent years trying to make this happen," Villafuerte, a slightly built father of eight, told AFP at his home in San Pablo city, south of Manila, ahead of his first visit to Japan. Escorted by his son, he lit a candle and prayed before his father's tombstone in the city of Takatsuki, between Kyoto and Osaka, on Aug 7. Jose Villafuerte (centre) praying with his son Avelino Villafuerte (left) and his Japanese half-brother Hiroyuki Takei (right) at the gravesite of their father Ginjiro Takei together for the first time, in the city of Takatsuki in Osaka prefecture. - AFP He met his half-brother Hiroyuki Takei for the first time a day earlier and now expects to get a Japanese passport, as well as visas for his children and grandchildren. Villafuerte is one of more than 3,000 "Nikkei-jin", offspring of Japanese who were in the Philippines before or during World War II. Japan has in recent years begun helping in "recovering their identity", said Norihiro Inomata, country director for the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center (PNLSC). Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met Villafuerte and two other Nikkei-jin during a visit to Manila in April. However, only 100 or so are still alive more than two decades after the effort was launched in 2003, Inomata told AFP. The oldest is 97. "Time is running out," he said. "It was fate's design that I would be able to visit my father's grave. I am very much blessed, because I saw my brother and he guided me here to see the tomb of my father and their relatives," Villafuerte told reporters during the Takatsuki visit. His father Takei, a Japanese army engineer, worked on the Philippine railway system as part of the occupation forces but was sent home during the war, Inomata said. Growing up in post-war Philippines, Villafuerte was the target of merciless bullying, blowback from a conflict in which half a million of the South-East Asian country's 17 million people were killed, most of them civilians. An obelisk stands in the Chinese cemetery in San Pablo as a memorial to more than 600 male residents rounded up by Japanese troops and bayoneted to death in February 1945. "People kept reminding me my father was an evil person who killed many Filipinos," Villafuerte said, adding that it nearly caused him to drop out of school. "It hurt, because it was never my choice to have a Japanese parent." Manila grocer Maria Corazon Nagai, an 82-year-old widow and mother of three, gave up her Philippine passport for a Japanese one last April with PNLSC's help. She told AFP that her Japanese father, Tokuhiro Nagai, a civil engineer, had lived with her mother in Manila during the war. "In my family, I was the only one who looked different," said Nagai, who quit school after sixth grade when family finances bottomed out following her father's post-war death. She went to live with her maternal grandmother when her mother remarried and began working as a sales clerk in her teens. Maria Corazon Nagai showing her Japanese passport at her home in Manila. - AFP "I'm happy now that I've found my identity," said the bespectacled, soft-spoken Nagai, who still tends a cramped stall selling shampoo, noodles and condiments in Manila's downtown Zamora market. Nagai said she hid her parentage as she reached adulthood to avoid the bullying she endured as a child. She was "relieved to learn my father was not a soldier" when she obtained her birth records at the civil registry in the 1990s. Before the invasion, small groups of Japanese migrated to the Philippines from the late 19th century to escape "overpopulation", with some marrying locals, said Inomata, the legal centre director. Their offspring went into a "spiral of poverty" when the state confiscated their assets after the war, and many were unable to obtain a formal education, he said. One male descendant hid in the mountains of the southern Philippines for 10 years after the war fearing he would be harmed, Inomata said. Views towards Japan began changing in the 1970s as Tokyo completed war reparations that helped rebuild the Philippines, and Japanese investors built factories and created jobs. The two countries are now security allies. Nagai has been unable to find any Japanese relatives and couldn't locate her father's grave during her 2023 trip to Tokyo, but she will fly to Japan for a second time later this year for a holiday. Though she does not speak the language, Nagai said she now considers herself Japanese. For Villafuerte, the situation is more ambiguous. "Of course, it is difficult being a Filipino for 82 years and suddenly that changes," he said. "The past is past, and I have accepted that this is how I lived my life." - AFP
Yomiuri Shimbun
05-08-2025
- General
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japanese Descendant Left Behind in the Philippines After World War II to Visit Family in Japan for 1st Time
SAN PABLO, Philippines — A son of a Japanese man, who was left behind in the Philippines during the turmoil after the end of World War II, was expected to visit Japan for the first time Wednesday. He plans to meet his siblings living in Osaka and visit the grave of his father. Jose Takei, who lives in Laguna Province's San Pablo near Manila, was born in May 1943 to Benita Abril and Ginjiro Takei, an engineer for the Philippine national railway company. Abril was separated from Ginjiro while pregnant with Jose. Ginjiro had left a doll with Abril, saying he will return someday, and she had cherished the doll as a memory of him but lost it during the post-war turmoil. Jose Takei, 82, said he had believed his mother's second husband was his biological father when he was very young. However, when he was eight or nine years old, he asked his mother if it was true that he's the child of a Japanese person, like a neighbor had said. She told him that his real father had returned to Japan. Because of the war, anti-Japanese sentiment was strong in the Philippines and Takei was bullied at school, being called a bad person. Takei said he felt pent up anger toward his father for not returning to the Philippines and failing to keep his promise. Takei married in 1965 and had four sons and three daughters. Over time, his anger toward his father faded, and his interest in his origin grew. A turning point came in 2009. With the assistance of the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center, a Tokyo-based support group, and other parties, Takei was able to identify his father through records from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. His father returned to Japan after the war, lived in Osaka and died in 2005, the same year as his mother. Last year, Takei saw a photo of his father for the first time. His children told him Ginjiro looks just like their father. During his stay in Japan, Takei plans to learn from his siblings about his father's life. He also plans to visit his father's grave and ask him why he could not keep his promise to his wife. Many second-generation Japanese-Filipinos were forced to be stateless as they were unable to obtain even Philippine citizenship due to the Philippines' patriarchal policy at the time of their births, under which children acquire citizenship though their father. Japan's Foreign Ministry has been supporting their acquisition of Japanese nationality since 1995 with the cooperation of a Japanese-Filipino association. However, it is difficult to for the descendants to create a new family register in Japan without clear documented proof. According to the legal support center, there were an estimated 372 second-generation Japanese-Filipinos without Japanese nationality as of the end of March, including those whose whereabouts are unknown. The average age of the descendants is over 83. 'On the occasion of Takei's visit to Japan, we want to extend support to other second-generation Japanese descendants,' a Foreign Ministry official said.
