In a few months I will be traveling to Japan from the US for vacation. This will be my second time as last year when I went it was a mind blowing experience! I had to go back!
One of the things on my list this time is trying to locate the hospital (or the location that once was as I'm sure the hospital is no longer there) where my father was born in 1925. He past away two years ago and I came across some of his papers that listed the full address of the hospital.
He is not Japanese but was born in Kobe as his father and mother (both Chinese) was in Japan doing business.
I tried putting the address into Goggle Maps and it sort of got me a "best guess" location. Some people I have been asking did some research and said it was "close". I'm trying to get even more information by posting my information here.
If I can just stand in the spot where the hospital was, it would mean a great deal to me. Now if the hospital is still around, I would be floored!
Here's the exact information on the paper. It may or may not be 100% in the spelling the way my father wrote it so keep that in mind.
Dr. Y. Miura
Miura Maternity Hospital
160-3, 6 Chome, Shimoyamate, Ikjtaku
Kobe, Japan
OMG @mdchachi !!!!!!!!! I can not thank you enough! That is a lot of good information. It might be all that I need. My thought (even before posting here) was to visit the Kobe City Museum and see if they can help or at least point me in the right direction. Looks like you are suggesting the same.
We just finished booking our 7th and final hotel for a 3 week stay in the fall. It will be another whirlwind and fantastic journey. And if I can be at that location and do a 360 pano video, I don't know if I can stop from crying. My father passed away two years ago at age 97 in his sleep. He lived a good long life and took care of all of us. Doing this will be the ultimate to honor him.
I will report back after my trip. (Bows) Thank you again.
My apologies for taking so long to update all of you after returning from a FABULOUS three week journey throughout Japan. It took a while to get over jet lag and then catching up on all the neglected things lingering at home from being away for so long. To say it was an overwhelming emotional experience would be a HUGE understatement.
To back up a little, I didn't know my brother and his family were going to be in Japan around the same time we were. It's not that we don't talk to each other, we do, but we just don't find out about each other's vacations until after the fact with pictures or text messages.
About two weeks before we were to depart we both found out about each other's plans and he did a scramble to slightly rearrange his itinerary so we can have a few days (three) of overlap in Kobe. His target was the Hokkaido region so he flew into Tokyo and started south before leaving Kobe to head north.
He and his family arrived at Kobe a day earlier than us and we left Kobe a day later than him. We were coming from Nagoya. Due to operating hours of the Kobe City Museum, he went there first on the day before we arrived. I never got to go. The plan was to hit the City Museum and then City Hall to talk to as many people as possible to find out where the location was.
Afterwards, my brother told me that the Museum was not much help since there really was no historian on staff and all the employees were young women with not much knowledge on the history of the city. They were there just to look after the place. No fault there. The next day we met up and went to City Hall. Unlike most city government in the US you can just walk right in with no appointment, no metal detectors, no bag searches. We were amazed!
We went to Chuo Ward offices and told them our story and what we were trying to do. The story itself, trying to locate the spot where our father was born almost 100 years ago, really interested them and they were bending over backwards to try and help.
Even though the two ladies we spoke to were older (50's) they weren't sure about the address. They had a hunch but something about that exact address bewildered them. Not wanting to steer us wrong, they asked us to go up to the 6th floor and inquire there.
We went to the 6th floor and nobody spoke English, at least enough to communicate, except this young girl who seems to have recently graduated from college. We told her the story and she took all our documents (I preprinted all the maps, etc.) and took them to her boss who was waaaay back in the large open room in the corner. He was an elderly gentlemen. We could see they were chatting back and forth.
After about 10 minutes she came back and told us that our research were spot on. Bingo! We were going to walk to the spot but on the way out we noticed that there was an Observation Deck on the 24th floor of the building. It was free and since we were there already, what the heck. We decided to go up.
We were the only ones there as it was around 10:30am on a weekday. It was an indoor walk around setup so you can get a 360 view of the city. When we finally did a full circle there was this elderly lady standing at the Information desk who wasn't there before. She struck up a conversation with us as there was no one else there and her English was very good.
We told here our story and our mission and she was touched. She told me that where our father was born was her old neighborhood growing up!!!!!! She actually brought us to one of the windows and pointed out where it is.
Since she really knew the history, she told us the background and we listened intently like we were in school!
Apparently my father probably spelled it wrong. It really was Ikuta (Ward). Ikuta ward existed until 1980 (I believe) when it was merged with its larger neighbor, Chuo Ward. She suspected that was the reason why Google Maps had a little bit of trouble since "Ikjtaku" was in the address. She also told us that it is almost certain that the building would not be there due to three major events that most likely wiped it out. The great flood of 1938, the WWII allied bombing and the great Kobe earthquake of 1995. This lady was such a historian!
We told her we weren't expecting the actual building after almost 100 years later. What a godsend that we bumped into her. We almost didn't go up to the Observation Deck!
We thought, based on Goggle Maps, that it would be walkable but the lady advised us that it would be a good walk and might take some time. Instead we opted for a taxi as we were excited to get there and I've never been in a taxi before in Japan.
In a few minutes we were there. The location is now a library and also the Hyogo Prefecture Labor offices. The street that we were standing on was small and didn't have a lot of traffic so we were able to stand afar a little and just imagined what it would have been like in 1925. With a lump in my throat and butterflies in my stomach, the emotional feeling was incredible. I finally found the location and I was standing right there plus/minus 100 ft.
We took pictures and videos all around. My brother and I posed in front of the library while our wives took pictures. To say I didn't shed a tear would be lying. We spent about a half hour or so milling in front of the library and just reflecting where we were at. The library patrons must have thought who are these people and what's so special about this library to them???
!!!! Upper right: "6 Shimoyamate-dori, Chuo-ku" !!!! The correct street!
As we were walking away, we saw this! The Kobe City Ikuta Cultural Hall. What? I wonder if they can provide even more information. Unfortunately they were closed during that day. The old neighborhood still exists in spirit!
But wait! There's more!!!!
The day after my brother left for Hokkaido we had an extra day in Kobe for ourselves. We decided to head on over to the Ikuta shrine. As we near, it seems a lot of the surrounding infrastructure is still named after the old neighborhood. For one, the road name!
As we got to the shrine, I did some reading on the internet and what ever signage they had. Turns out it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, shrine in all of Japan, which I did not know. On the grounds they even have a cut down tree with over 500 rings!
While walking the grounds, we noticed that there were a lot of little kids dressed to the nine along with their parents, also fully dressed. What's going on? A lot of family photos were taken and they all headed into the main building. Turns out there was some ceremony where the kids were being blessed by the priest. My wife did some Googling and found out that this shrine is dedicated to pregnant women and little kids. That explains what I was seeing.
That plus the 500 year old tree and it being near the place where my father was born, an epiphany just clicked in my head. There is an extreme likelihood that I was walking on the same grounds that my grandparents (whom I have never met in person, only pictures) and my father walked on!!! That thought alone made me froze in my tracks and the overwhelming emotions was indescribable. We're talking about almost 100 years and older!
There I go. I crossed the finish line in glory, accomplishing more than I had hoped. Thanks for your help and guidance.
Footnote:
As if that wasn't enough. From the information by my parents I was told that my grandparents were quite well off. Their house took up an entire block and they have household staff. Grandpa was a business man and one of his main business was match making. No, not that , but wooden matches that were the norm for society back then. We are not Japanese but they were in Japan at the time to establish or start up a factory to produce matches. That's why my father was born in Kobe.
Well, the day my brother went to the Kobe City Museum without me, he came upon a special exhibit that showed the industrialization of Kobe back in the early 1900's. And one of the industries? Matches! Although I didn't go, he took a lot of pictures and video. I still have yet to go through all of them but these two stood out.
Had I been at the museum I would have asked do they have any information where these came from and who the owners of the company would be? THAT would be another interesting research project. I would freak out if one of these match boxes came from my grandfather's company!
If you've gone to the end, thank you for reading and I apologize for the lengthy post. I felt it wouldn't be complete without the full story.
What a truly fantastic story! I am glad you could not only locate your grandfather's former residence but also learn more about his business. Kudos also to the kind people at the Kobe City Hall.
Thank you for sharing this!
Ikuta Shrine is one of the most prominent shrines in Kobe. @Davey's photo below was taken in 2005:
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