alumnus returns Iwo Jima mementos to Japanese soldier’s daughters

After 64 years, World War II veteran Franklin Hobbs ’46 was able to return chance-found battlefield keepsakes to a Japanese family.

The New York Times recently profiled Franklin W. Hobbs III ’46, M.B.A. ’52, who as a young soldier at the Battle of Iwo Jima retrieved an envelope from the body of a Japanese soldier. The keepsake contained a child’s drawing and an infant’s photograph, which for years hung in the Hobbs family home. 

At his wife’s urging, Hobbs decided to try to return the memento to the family of the slain soldier. With the help of a Japanese-American friend, the search led to the soldier’s daughters: Chie Takegawa, 70, in Sanjo City, Japan, and Yoko Takegawa, 65, in northern New Jersey.

Yoko Takegawa, the infant in the photograph, never knew her father, Matsuji; she was born after he left for the war. Hobbs and Takegawa met a short time ago near his home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

“When she walked out of the car and came over and gave me a hug, it hit me,” Hobbs told the Times. “It meant so much to her. I had done something that I didn’t even realize would mean so much to anybody. I just thought it was a collector’s item.”

Related topics

You might also like

Being Undocumented in America

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s writing aims to challenge assumptions. 

A New Narrative of Civil Rights

Political philosopher Brandon Terry’s vision of racial progress

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.

Most popular

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

Explore More From Current Issue

Colorful illustration of woman multitasking with laptop, baby bottle, toy, and checklist.

Motherhood and Ambition in a Pronatalist World

Gen Z is confronting the age-old question of balance—with a new twist.

Vivian W. Rong sitting on bench outdoors.

Highlighting Harvard Magazine’s Fellows

The 2025-2026 Ledecky and Summer Undergraduate Fellows

Room filled with furniture made from tightly rolled newspaper sheets.

A Paper House in Massachusetts

The 1920s Rockport cottage reflects resourceful ingenuity.