The Bluff Yokohama?

Yes please keep us informed - it is only 8 weeks till I go to live in Tokyo now but I will continue to check back and if I can be any help once there I will try to. I will be living a few prefectures up from Yokohama but might be of some help. Fingers crossed for you. T_K

Thank you for the offer Katie....who knows...wouldn't it just be a miracle if we can find a family member. I hope to get those letters written this weekend and will be sure to let you all know if I get a response. It might take awhile as I will need a pastor with a kind heart to take an interest in doing a little research. I plan to send a small contribution to the churches in the hope that they will take an interest. Susan

I am excited as I was able to find an e-mail address for the priest at Sacred Heart Cathedral AND I re-read Edmondo's letter and, in it, he says that he GOES to Sacred Heart Church and lives near it!! He also said he attends "St. Mary's College" in the 6th grade. I have sent off an e-mail with the da Silva Family picture and hope that I will have some answer from the priest soon!
Susan

I lived on the Bluff for 2 years from 1952-54 when my father was stationed in Yokohama. I went to school (St. Maurs) with a girl called Emie Da Silva. Could this be the same family?

Sara

Hi Sara,
Looking at the family pictures that my dad had from 1946, Edmondo was in the 6th grade...so probably 11 or 12 years old? He has one older sister in the pictures and three younger brothers. The sister could have been about 14 in the picture. That would make her about 20 in 1952. There is also the possibility that they had another child. If a daughter was born after my dad was there...then she would have been about 5 in 1952. What do you think?
Susan
Have not heard from the priest at Sacred Heart yet.

I just got this note back from Father Burke at Sacred Heart and it is encouraging!
Dear Susan,

I apologize for being so late in responding to your inquiry. In our church
records we have no one by the name of Edmondo da Silva registered. In 1997
Joseph da Silva died and I had the burial. As I recall he was in his late
80s or early 90s when he died. Fred ad Silva attended Mass freuqenly until
about 7 years ago. I have a telephone number but no one was home when I
called. I will try to get some information for you when I find someone
home. Please wait a few more days.

Fr. Burke

That is such a brilliant e-mail looking very good - what a lead.

I cannot believe it, but I just got off the phone after a long and very wonderful conversation with Edmondo da Silva!! The priest at Sacred Heart was able to find an old classmate of his who knew his address. The amazing thing is that Edmondo is living in California and not so far from me in the San Francisco Bay area!! We are going to make plans to meet each other in the future. THANK YOU all for your support and ideas.....you truly were the ones who led me to Edmondo. I must tell you that he also tried to find my father, even going to the town that my mom as living in during the war but he only had a post office address. He has wonderful vivid memories of my dad..he said he as a like a second dad to him for their time together.
Thank you for your support and interest!
Susan

I couldn't believe it.

Couldn't ask for a more perfect ending, sounds like amovie of the week lol.

I am so very pleased for you Susan what a fabulous fabulous out come.

Susan,
How nice to hear the news!!

Thank you for letting us know. If you have a chance to visit the Bluff in Japan, please let us know!!

I came in late on this, but what a great story to read! Thank you for sharing!

Such a beautiful story. It really shows the internet makes the world a smaller and hopefully a better place. I been to Sacred Heart Cathedral and the area around the Bluff last Sept. Very beautiful are. The Bluff Clinic does "stand out" too, if you get what I mean. Will be headed to Yokohama again this year end. God Bless.

Hi Susan,

I used to know a girl with a surname of Da Silva when I went to school in that area. She was a year or two older than me. I am now 49..I know it's a long shot but I will check out my year books to see if I can find out anything. Maybe he could've been their father?

Rose, I believe this story has already had a happy ending.

Hi Rose and anyone else who has followed my story. I just thought I would report back and tell you all that Edmund (as he is called now) and I met a couple of weeks ago! We had a wonderful lunch looking at my dad's photo album from his time in Yokohama. I was able to give him a copy of a video that I made of my dad shortly before he died, talking about his days in Yokohama and how much Edmund and his family meant to him. It felt very good for both of us and I know that Edmund now knows how much he always meant to my dad and that he was always in his heart.
Thanks to all of you for your interest and support:) Susan

What a great story.
I attended three years of school at Yokohama International School in 55-56-57 when we lived in Yokohama. We lived across the street from Area 2 housing at #91 Sannotani and I road my bike to school up on the Bluff every day. We lived in Japan 1951-1961, first in Sagamihara, then moved to Yokohama. We had a great family friend who was the Japanese police beat cop in our neighborhood. His name was Sase-san and he would often give me a ride in his Jeep. A couple years ago, I tried to find him through various e-mails and about 6 months ago, I got a note from his son, Kaoru Sase who is married and has children in Yokohama. His dad has oldtimers' disease and lives at the son's home.
I'm wondering if our home at Sannotani is still there? Someone said the Yokohama Bay in front of San Kaien Park had been landfilled for industry. This park was a 15 minute walk from our house.
Regards,

Eric

I hope someone is still visiting this site. I was five and lived on Yamate 21 in 1948-50. A friend in japan did some research just this week and found this out:

"Your residence should be at No. 32 Yamate, Naka-ku Yokohama. Dr. D. H. Seelheim, Consul General of German Consulate, and his family lived in that western style house at No. 32 at least until 1942 three years before German surrendered.

The site at No. 32 was sold quite some time ago after the Pacific War and there are three houses built presently in the same lot. Friends of ours heard the people living around the area saying that before the three houses were built, there had been a big and tall western style house.

The lot at No. 25, just opposite side across the road in front of the three houses at No. 32 is another candidate. Two houses are now in the lot. A house wife of one of the two houses told friends of ours that she remembered the deceased father of her husband previously said he bought the lot from a Germany related probably to Germany Consul General. In the historical photos of western style houses in Yamate, the house at No. 25 was shown as German House. The picture was taken before 1922, a bit too old.

The office of the German Consulate at that time was located at different place at 51-B Yamashita-chou (town) Naka-ku (ward) Yokohama about 10 minute drive from No.32 Yamate.

German Embassy was in Tokyo since it was opened nearly 100 years ago. The German Ambassador in 1942 was Major General Eugen Ott. He and his family lived in the official residence in the same quarter as the Embassy at 14 Nagata-chou 1-choume Kuoujimachi-ku Tokyo. So, we believe your house was not the German Ambassadorfs residence, but it was the residence of German Consul General in Yokohama. At that time, the center of politics was in Tokyo whereas the center of trade was in Yokohama thanks to the biggest size of foreign trade made through the port of Yokohama.

Referring to the photo of you waiting for a school bus in front of high wall with a sign board behind the wall mentioning 21, we found the site No.21 at which a big condo named Starred Plaza is now built. That location is about 100 meters apart from your house at No. 32. The turning angle of the road on the photo is almost same as today when we see the road from the spot where you were waiting for the bus. We think you walked from your house to the nearest school bus stop. Because no staff of the German Consulate lived at No. 21, this lot could not be your house.

Yamate area was developed and specially prepared more than 100 years ago for residential area for foreign Consuls and leading business men. There were many residences of Consul General of other countries such as Britain, Italy in addition to Germany.

The location of Yamate is on the hill, which is even now one of the highest class residential areas in Yokohama with many rich foreign people. They say that in the old days the sea was at hand from the site including your residence at No. 32 or No.25, but the huge land reclamation work was made in 1970s and the sea is now a bit far away.

We got the factual information from Chronicle Directory which were produced by the Foreign Affairs Association of Japan in order to supply foreign Governments and business people the up-to-date information on the main public organizations and private firms across the country especially for main cities in Japan. It covers not only the names and addresses of the organizations but also names, home addresses and tel numbers of people working in the organizations or firms. They were published every two years and the last issue was for 1941/1942. We found them a few days ago at the Institution Commemorating the Opening of the Yokohama Port. We really feel strange why we could not have found the Directory for so long time since we started searching any proper literature two months ago. The staff in charge of the biggest library in Yokohama had no idea at all about even the existence of the Directory. Therefore we spent few months in vain having tried to locate the residence of the German consul..

Mr. & Mrs. Tsubaki, our friends living near Yamate in Yokohama were really helpful. They found all the sites at No.32, No.25 and No.21. They met a wife living at No. 25 in front of the three houses at No. 32 across the road. They also found that in Yamate, the numbers were assigned to each house on the first-built first-assign basis from hundred years ago and the old numbers have remained unchanged from the beginning."

I think he is wrong about our address because I have a photo of me in front of 21 with my father's name on the sign.

pls email me if you want: love to share findings.

richard@groff.com

Wonderful story, my Dad used to talk about a family he lived with in England during WWII. Just last week we moved into a house on the Bluff in Yokohama, we attend Sacred Heart Church.