Sunday, March 6, 2011

Who's Who?



I’ve been digging into my ancestors and various links. It’s been fun, but I have my doubt in the direction I’m heading. In the last comment to my blog, “Ancestors and Descendant,” ZACL has given me a good advice. Thank you, ZACL. Her advice is to focus, not to branch out too many ways. That’s the good advice I needed. I don’t need to stop my search just because I’m discouraged a little.

Sometimes, I feel discouraged to go on my research for various reasons. One is to go back to the dark time of the Japan history. I cannot possibly write and deal with one by one. It’s way beyond over my head.

Second is about my interviewee. They are old. So, I want to interview them before I regret. But because they are old, I have to be very careful in believing their words. My aunt Ruri has dementia. When I’m talking with her, she is still quite sharp. She remembers details of the incidents that took 50 years ago. Some of them seem to be important and not known publicly. But I have a doubt.

My doubt is about how to be careful. It’s easy to say to be careful, but I know no such technique. I just realized. This is what happened. Yesterday, my aunt gave me a very interesting and unique name that I’ve never heard of before. She uttered this name while I was asking about a man who had gone to Brazil 70 or 80 years ago. Maybe, he has no blood relation with us, or maybe related by someone’s marriage. I’m unsure. But if we have any link to the man who had gone to Brazil and married a Brazilian woman, I wanted to find out and let Luciana (my fellow blogger) know. She lives in Brazil.

So, I asked my aunt yesterday about that man who came up in our family conversation several times. My aunt’s reply included a name, Oobinata Den. Wow, what a name! I researched that name this morning. I’m not describing exactly what she said because that part is not important. It was wrong information. But because of the wrong information, I’ve learned who the man on the above photo was. My aunt must be about 15 year old on the photo. She is on right, and the girl on left must be her friend. She has gone to a movie studio and took the attached photo. I knew the man in the photo was an actor, but I didn’t know his name. Yes. I think the man is Oobinata Den. What do you think? The photo was probably taken around 1938.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ia6t-tkhs/j-movies-3.htm
大日方 伝・おびなた でん

2 comments:

Luciana said...

Keiko, if you wish to find relatives in Brazil, let me know. Although it´s a big country, we can try.
I hope you´re ok. Are you in Japan or the US?

keiko amano said...

Luciana,

I'm in Japan.

Thank you for your offer. I wanted to tell you more, but I have not much information. I heard he was married to a Brazilian woman and had a precious gemstone business. I don't know if it was a jewelry store or not. If he were one of my grandfahter's brother, then his last name is Yamada, but I'm unsure. He lost his mother, so he had the second mother, so he has other brothers whom I don't know much. I believe all those men were college graduates and competitive, so I think he made a success in his business. I looked for "Yamada Jewelry" or something, but I couldn't find it. If such a name exists since the Japanese community started in Brazil, then maybe that's a possibility, I thought. I plan to call up some old relatives I haven't seen for ages later on while I'm here. If i find anything, I'll let you know.