Travels between Yaeyama and Taiwan
9
google_maps
2021-01-13T12:58:25-05:00
39.898203, 116.391803
25.032573, 121.574401
24.409084, 124.165807
10/1943
05/1946
Hiroko Matsuda
While she went back home for holiday, she was offered a marriage with Yamane Toraji, who was working at Beijing and just came back home for holiday.
Yamane Toraji's parents were originally from Tokushima prefecture, and they migrated to Ishigaki Island in order to work for Nakagawa Toranosuke's reclamation project. Although his parents passed away at the younger age, Yamane Toraji was supported by his older brother and made career as the communication engineer.
Keiko and Toraji got married in October 1943. Soon after the wedding ceremony, they headed off to Taiwan with the intention of further moving to the South Sea Islands, the mandatory territory of Japan. Since the South Sea Islands came under the control of the Japanese government in 1919, numerous Okinawans migrated there especially from the main island of Okinawa.
They tried to find the way to migrate to the South Sea Islands from Taiwan. However, they had to give up and stayed in Taiwan, because the human movements were already strictly regulated by the government. Toraji began to work for Taihoku Telegraph Office at the end of 1943, and Keiko gave a birth to the first daughter in Taiwan.
After the war, they repatriated to Ishigaki Island by LST in May 1946.
