Okinawan Filipina seek information about Uechi family

Okinawan Filipina seek information about Uechi family

Photograph of Minoru and his wife Tomiko Uechi.


August 24, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

The Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center is seeking information about Minoru Uechi and his son Mitsunari who may know Hiroshi, the father of Yoneko Arakaki, whose Filipino name is Inocencia. Yoneko visited Okinawa last summer.

Minoru was born in 1927 in Davao Santa Cruz, in the Philippines, as the son of father Kamasuke and mother Salvadora. Kamasuke is Yoneko’s father’s cousin.
After World War II Minoru moved to Okinawa, his father’s homeland, and during the 70s he sent letters with pictures to his relatives back in the Philippines. Some family photographs exist of his wife Tomiko and their son Mitsunari when he was six years old.

A letter suggests that his address was “87 Zakimi, Yomitan Village,” but that has not been confirmed. Minoru met Yoneko in Davao around 1972 or 1973.
Minoru’s father Kamasuke was repatriated to Japan after the war, but it would seem that he did not enter his presence on his family registry in Yomitan, which had been his official domicile before the war.

Mitsunari, the son of Minoru Uechi, would be in his 40s.

If alive, Minoru would now be 85 years old, and his son Mitsunari would be in his 40s. Yoneko has applied to create a new family register under her Japanese nationality and the Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center requests information about them because Minoru would be able to testify that Yoneko is a Japanese descendant. The contact phone number is 03 (3355) 8861.

(English translation by T&CT, Kyoko Tadaoka and Mark Ealey)

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