Searching for ANY info

Searching for anything about my grandfather. Masaru Kishimoto
My mother just passed, and I never learned about him. My grandmother was shime Chodai kishimoto. My mother was born in 1933. So way back. I painfully regret so much. Please help. Any info would be appreciated Thank you

Any idea what town he was from? Maybe something written on a picture or letter. Every little detail you can find may help. Sometimes the Kanji used in the name of your grandfather may help. Even with a lot of current info , it's so difficult to locate people in Japan.

Kushu kokura. Was where my mom was born. Thank you so much for your time

Uncle Frank said:

Any idea what town he was from? Maybe something written on a picture or letter. Every little detail you can find may help. Sometimes the Kanji used in the name of your grandfather may help. Even with a lot of current info , it's so difficult to locate people in Japan.

Click to expand...

No luck?

Some members only get on during the weekend , so give it some time. From what I have seen over the years here of people searching for someone in Japan , odds are about 98% against finding someone , but always worth a try.

really? Wow. Oddly When I did my DNA thing, I'm 50% and not one Japanese person came up. That was years ago. Do you all charge money?

thank you again. Very much. Judy

Hello Judy,
Kokura is a big city in the south of Japan. Almost a million residents. It was a big city 100 years ago. Kishimoto is not an uncommon last name, and there are a couple of different ways to spell it in Japanese (岸本, 岸元, 岸下).
So searching for a Kishimoto from Kokura in the 1930s is like searching for someone named "Anderson" in Austin, Texas.

We are just Japan residents or Japan enthusiasts here on this board. We aren't genealogists or private investigators.
You may have to hire a private investigator here in Japan if you want someone to do serious legwork like looking through old archives or public records.

I think of searching for someone in Japan is a bit like putting up a poster of a lost cat or dog on a telephone pole. Many people will walk by and not even notice it. Some will take a quick glance at it and think , nothing I can help with. A cat or dog lover who lives in the same area/neighborhood may stop and read it and think , if I see it , I'll try to catch it and help return it to the owner. Now if you get super lucky , a really nice/helpful person may take the poster down and use it to drive or walk around , showing it to people and trying real hard to find the missing animal. But that type of person is probably pretty rare. There are so many things that make finding a person in Japan very difficult if not impossible unless you are willing to pay someone who is a pro at it and even that might not work. Our section here "Japan People Search" is a bit like the poster on the telephone pole ; there's that slight chance you might get lucky but there is no guarantee , sorry to say.