On July 24, MaryLou Mohon Smith told us about her quest to track down the family of a Japanese casualty at the South Pacific battle for Tarawa during World War II. Her uncle, Adrian Mohon, was on the island to assist in repair of the infrastructure for air operations when his unit heard noise coming from a nearby pillbox. After using hand grenades, her uncle entered the box and found on one of the soldiers a “book” of rough brown paper sheets with photos and comments in Japanese. The uncle kept the “book” until giving it to MaryLou because she showed interest.
Mohon started a low-key effort to track down the soldier's family, knowing only his last name, Higuchi. One of the first steps involved asking a Japanese American couple who were to spend some time in Japan to look into the issue. They were unsuccessful in making any progress.
Later, MaryLou had the opportunity to work with a young Japanese professor, Ieko Kakuta, who was on sabbatical at CSU. MaryLou described the “book” to her. Ieko, a devoted Buddhist, felt that the young man’s spirit would not rest until the “book” could be returned to his family. So when Ieko returned to Japan, she described the situation to her father, a retired geophysicist. After two-plus years, the father was able to track down the family.