Japan's wartime children in Philippines search for identity

AFTER a lifetime of searching, Jose Villafuerte this month finally found the Japanese father he lost during the dark years of World War II in the occupied Philippines.

- 

The 82-year-old, a former gravedigger, was still in the womb of his Filipina mother, Benita Abril, when her partner, imperial army officer Ginjiro Takei, returned to Japan during its brutal occupation of the archipelago from 1942-45.

His quest ended this month, days before the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, after an advocacy group found Takei’s tomb in Japan, where he had raised a family following the war.

A living half-brother and half-sister were also found, with DNA swabs sealing the family ties.

“I'm excited. My mother had spent years trying to make this happen,’ Villafuerte, a slightly built father of eight, said at his home in San Pablo city, south of Manila, ahead of his first visit to Japan.

Escorted by his son, he lit a candle and prayed before his father’s tombstone in the city of Takatsuki, between Kyoto and Osaka, on August 7.

He met his half-brother Hiroyuki Takei for the first time a day earlier and now expects to get a Japanese passport, as well as visas for his children and grandchildren.