For the first time in 79 years, a man in Higashihiroshima reunites with his father who died in Siberia, shedding tears with thoughts of his mother who “must have been relieved”
Nov. 6, 2024
by Miho Kuwajima, Staff Writer
The remains of Isso Mukai, a native of Hachihonmatsu-cho of Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, have been returned to his second son, Tetsuro, 81, who lives in the same town. Isso died of a disease at the age of 33 in Siberia, where he was interned after World War II. The remains were identified as Isso through DNA testing by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, allowing father and son to be reunited for the first time in 79 years.
According to his family, the sickly Isso was drafted into the former Japanese Imperial Army in March 1945 as the war situation worsened and was sent to what was then Manchuria (northeastern China). After the war ended there, he is believed to have been interned in Siberia, where he did forced labor in the extreme cold and fell ill.
Fumie, Isso’s wife, who was 30 at the time, continued to wait for her husband to come home after the war. “I remember my mother praying to the household Shinto shrine every day,” Tetsuro said. The family survived on farming and remittances from relatives who had emigrated to the United States, and did not receive a survivor’s pension. Later they received the news that Isso “died of a disease in China” and registered his death at the city hall in 1961.
Fumie died in May 2013 at the age of 98. The following month, the Japanese government’s investigation, based on documents from the former Soviet Union, revealed Isso died of dysentery in a field hospital in the Khabarovsk region of Russia in December 1945 and was buried in a nearby cemetery.
In August 2016, Tetsuro joined a group of people sent by the national government to console the souls of Japanese who died in detention in Siberia, and visited for the first time the place where his father had been interned. “It must have been very hard, with hardly any food to eat,” he said. In 2018, Isso’s remains were recovered at the site by the government’s group that travels overseas and collects the remains of Japanese who died during World War II. In June of this year, the DNA analysis proved that there was a blood relationship between the remains and Tetsuro.
On October 8, Tetsuro received his father’s remains at the Hiroshima prefectural office. He said, “My first thought was of my mother, which made me cry. I think she is relieved now.” The family will hold a funeral for Isso with only relatives. His remains will be buried in May next year, on the 12th anniversary of Fumie’s death, in the tomb Fumie had prepared just for her and Isso before her death.
(Originally published on November 6, 2024)
The remains of Isso Mukai, a native of Hachihonmatsu-cho of Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, have been returned to his second son, Tetsuro, 81, who lives in the same town. Isso died of a disease at the age of 33 in Siberia, where he was interned after World War II. The remains were identified as Isso through DNA testing by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, allowing father and son to be reunited for the first time in 79 years.
According to his family, the sickly Isso was drafted into the former Japanese Imperial Army in March 1945 as the war situation worsened and was sent to what was then Manchuria (northeastern China). After the war ended there, he is believed to have been interned in Siberia, where he did forced labor in the extreme cold and fell ill.
Fumie, Isso’s wife, who was 30 at the time, continued to wait for her husband to come home after the war. “I remember my mother praying to the household Shinto shrine every day,” Tetsuro said. The family survived on farming and remittances from relatives who had emigrated to the United States, and did not receive a survivor’s pension. Later they received the news that Isso “died of a disease in China” and registered his death at the city hall in 1961.
Fumie died in May 2013 at the age of 98. The following month, the Japanese government’s investigation, based on documents from the former Soviet Union, revealed Isso died of dysentery in a field hospital in the Khabarovsk region of Russia in December 1945 and was buried in a nearby cemetery.
In August 2016, Tetsuro joined a group of people sent by the national government to console the souls of Japanese who died in detention in Siberia, and visited for the first time the place where his father had been interned. “It must have been very hard, with hardly any food to eat,” he said. In 2018, Isso’s remains were recovered at the site by the government’s group that travels overseas and collects the remains of Japanese who died during World War II. In June of this year, the DNA analysis proved that there was a blood relationship between the remains and Tetsuro.
On October 8, Tetsuro received his father’s remains at the Hiroshima prefectural office. He said, “My first thought was of my mother, which made me cry. I think she is relieved now.” The family will hold a funeral for Isso with only relatives. His remains will be buried in May next year, on the 12th anniversary of Fumie’s death, in the tomb Fumie had prepared just for her and Isso before her death.
(Originally published on November 6, 2024)
