The Bluff Yokohama?

To Joanna Edina Russell from Keith D. Russell
I am the great grandson of Maurice Moses Russell who perished in the 1923 Yokohoma earthquake. Please contact me if you can. I can't list my email here.
Keith D. Russell, Stanwood, WA USA.

My grandfather, John R Geary, was also living on the Bluff with his family at the time of the 1923 earthquake. He was the American representative of General Electric at the time. I would be interested in learning if anyone reading this note had family that knew him at the time. Thank you! Virginia

To Joanne Edina Russell, It is very likely that our grandfathers knew each other since the American community lived and worshiped together. My grandfather was Catholic.
Would you happen to have any photos that may have my grandfather included? I have just a few that were not destroyed in the Great Earthquake of 1923. Thanks. Virginia

My Grandfather as a small boy of 10 but left April 1900 the family was living at 25 Bluff, Yokohama, Japan His father was in the Royal Navy (HMS Blenheim then Barfleur 1898, present at bombardment of Taku Forts 1900)

Dear Susan, I'M happy that you were able to reconnect with my uncle Edmond. He has shared all of the photos you gave him with all of his large extended family. I have been working on our family history and our family tree. I was wondering if you could tell me more details about the memories your father shared with you regarding the daSilva family.
Also, I was wondering if anyone else out there had family who were moved from the Bluffs during the war to a town called Gora where they were under community arrest until the war was over. I understand that our family was relocated to Gora up in the Hikoni mountains. They were given two options of where they could move but they decided upon Gora because the boys school was also in Gora. In Gora they had no running water and they had the fetch water in buckets and carry them up the steep hill. In the winter they would slip on the ice and spill the water down the hill making a solid sheet of ice on the hill. They had no income and no way to buy food except to trade the few things they had of value. Does any one else have stories of relocation to Gora during the war? It sounded like there were hundreds of expat families who were relocated to Gora together from the Bluffs. Thank you, Angela da Silva

Looking for Joanne Edina Russell who posted here two years ago about her family Thanks Mike Levenston

lived at 210 naka-ku yamate -cho yokohama and graduated from st. joseph in 1963- my dad was with IBM and we moved to Tokyo after I graduated-I went To Tulane in New Orleans and only returned to Japan a few times-my girl friend was sue bitzer who's father was with Shell and she went to Yo-Hi- any one ever heard of me?

Hi! My sister Carole (now deceased) and I went to St. Maur's from (abt) 1954-1956. I went from K-2 grade and had Mde. St. Olivia in the First Grade and Mde. St. Agatha in Second Grade, where Mde. St. Henri taught Carole in the third grade. We lived across the street from the Foreign Cemetery on Yamato-Cho and used to walk to school passing Sacred Heart Church, where I rec'd my First Communion, and St. Joseph's Boys School.
My mother recently passed away at age 92 in March (2014) and she opened our house to the Ameri-Asian orphans when we lived on The Bluff. I have never forgotten the boy named George as I thought he was my brother. An American family adopted him because I believe he was part Hispanic and part Japanese. I do not remember what his last name was or is today.
I just found this blog (?) and cried. I am praying someone might help me. Our last name began with McG.........! Thanks so much,
Denise McG

Still looking for JoAnne Edina Russell who posted here previously. We share a common ancestor, Maurice Moses Russell. My grandfather Alfred was a brother of your father Edwin. I have moved to Arlington, Washington, USA. Hope we can connect and share family information.

Hello, I started this thread over nine years ago and I found it again while I was looking for some information on Japan as i am FINALLY going to visit! I read with much pleasure the development of this thread. How very interesting. I am just so grateful for the miracle that these boards were for me. I was able to not only find Edmond but to also meet him and I kept in touch with him by mail through the years. I am so very sorry to write that he passed away last year as his wife wrote to tell me some months back. I was very saddened by this. I wrote a story that I think will be in a book that will be published in the future and about my dad and Edmond and I was going to surprise Edmond with it. I see that a relative of his, Angela Da Silva, posted some time back. I have not been back to find this for so long and I hope that she will check back to find me. Maybe if she googles my name Susan Vargas Murphy, my email address will come up? There are instructions here not to post it:( If not, Edmond's wife knows my postal address. I asked her to give me Genny's address but have not heard back from her. I will be visiting Yokohama in October and have a guide that will take me to the sites that were so dear to my father�c.I am especially looking forward to visiting Sacred Heart Church and saying a prayer there for my dad an for Edmond�c�cIt has been 69 years since they met there and started a friendship that they carried in their hearts for their whole lives. Susan

Hello, I just found this thread. My father, George Shirras Walker lived most of his early live in Yamate on Bluff Rd. prior to WWII. I am sure the house is no longer there but I know that it was next to a hotel that was heavily damaged in the 1923 Kanto earthquake. My grandfather was killed in the earthquake, and both of my grandparents are buried in an international cemetery nearby to that area. Is there any information about the graves from the early 1900's in Yamate?

Thank You

D. Walker

This is the list with buried in a Yokohama foreign general cemetery. (Japanese and manes are English)

http://www.geocities.co.jp/rainichi20051/oldHOMEPAGEdata/yokohama.html

Enquiry;

http://www.yfgc-japan.com/ask.html

Enquiry in English;

http://www.yfgc-japan.com/ask_e.html

I just stumbled on this thread. I attended St Maur's 1949-52. I remember the beautiful Sr. St Virgilius. Andrea da Silva went to school with my brother at St Joseph's. My classmates were Alice Ricci, Andrea Fernandez, Annie Muto and Eloise Bernard. I don't know where they are now or their married names as I lost touch with Andrea after 1961. My father was with the Allied Occupation and we lived in a stately house on the bluffs close to the 2 schools. There was worrisome time for the adults then with the Korean War and Cold War turmoil but we children were oblivious of course and had a good time then. I remember often visiting the cemetery and the Sacred Heart Church.There was a swimming pool for the Japanese. Wow! Memories are flooding back.

JUDITH TIEN - I remember you from St. Maur's!
This is ANDREA CROSS nee FERNANDES. I now live in San Francisco. I just visited Annie Muto in L.A. Would be so much fun to meet with you again. How can we get in touch?
I am now married to Richard O. Cross - perhaps you can google him and find me (I don't do much on the computer)-- just lucky that a friend told me about you on this thread.
Andrea

Andrea, my dear childhood friend!
Isn't this incredible to connect. Just checked this site and found your email!
My email is jtienlau@yahoo.com. I haven't seen your lovely face since 1957 when I took several friends to meet up with you and Anne in Yokohama. Eloise was away and you didn't find Alice.
I live mot of the time in Honolulu after decades in California where my husband passed away. I commute to NYC often.
Love, Judith Tien

I'm still looking for these friends/classmates of mine who lived on the Bluff.. anyone still out there?

Sandford (Sandy) Eguchi (FOUND!)
Tommy Merrit/ Warren Merritt
Ronald (Ronnie) Diaz
Everett Willis/Dianna Willis
Joan Gogun
George (Bubba) Terrill/Sharon Terrill
Eric Olver
Barbara Ownby
Marie Laurintano
Bobbie Lucas

Dave Caranci

I have searched ling and hard, using the internet, Google maps, and a new friend fromTokyo, who was writing a study of Zoroastrianism in Japan.
In an old photograph of Grandfather's grave, is a clear image of an impressive Zoroastrian monument, with the name fairly clearly visible. A Google search on this name led me to my Japanese friend, who told me how to find it. He also took some pictures for me, but non of them showed Grandfathers grave.
However, using his information, My nephew, an instrumentation engineer, dealing with seismometers, there are many earthquakes in Japan, was able to find the Zoroastrian monument, and using the old photograph, took some pictures from as near to the same angle as he could.
It was immediately clear that there had been a large change in ground level with respect to the monument, a rise of about 600mm.
This must have happened in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. There must have been a ground liquifaction incident, causing a mud flow, and this must have submerged Grandfather's grave, leaving a level surface, giving the impression of a vacant plot. Another monument now stands where Grandfather's monument lays buried.
Now I need help.
I would dearly love to contact the family of the the person beneath the new monument; Firstly for the respect they gave to the cross, which they found, digging the new grave, and Secondly to to explain that there need be no guilt for what has been done in innocence.
Grandfather had a special relationship with the Japanese he mixed with in his work, helping to bring Japan into the 20th century at the closing of the Meiji era. As an ex sailor, he would have been enchanted to have an associate, to share his last voyage into the unknown.
If you look at this blog spot, you can find some relevant pictures:
"Looking for the Ikezumi Family"
yokohamagaijinbochiDOTblogspotDOTcoDOTuk

Hachiojiyama?
This is a hill in the Honmoku district of Yokohama.
Like Mississippi bay, it is not the real name.
There used to be a temple, dedicated to 8 cows, of all things, and a little hill overshadowing this temple site, was, I believe, called:
8 cows hill, or hachi ushi yama.

Someone later, mishearing, thought that Hachi Oji Yama was better.

Neither name seems to be still in use, for the little bay, and the hill, no longer overlook a beautiful society beach.

Where the sea once was, is now dry land covered with oil tanks.

It still had pride of place in the late 1940s, but now it is just a land-locked hill. Where the society beach was, is now a children's play-area.

I have some pictures, look here:
https://app.box.com/s/2xgn6442ekcpm9qpjnvhnln1yml7w2ow

The link to my blogspot:
http://yokohamagaijinbochi.blogspot.co.uk/