~”Nikkei” in Palau~ Interview Series: Vol.#19 Ms. Toshiko Arbedul

Mrs. Toshiko Arbedul, now 81 years old is a Palauan of Japanese descent, “Nikkei.” Her mother is Diramerkor Ucheremasech from Peleliu State. Mrs. Arbedul’s biological father is a Japanese named Mr. Toshiji Akiyama who worked in Peleliu as a carpenter during the Japanese era.
 
Born in 1943 just after WWII began, Mrs. Toshiko Arbedul was about 7 or 8 months old at the time and does not remember her biological father at all. From her recollection of stories from her mother, when the war broke out, the people of Peleliu were evacuated to Ngaraard State in Babeldaob. Her mother Diramerkor took her and left with the rest of the Palauans in Peleliu and went to Babeldaob, while her father stayed in Peleliu. When Mrs. Arbedul and her mother returned to Peleliu after the war, they saw that the island was in ruins. Her father Mr. Akiyama’s whereabouts were not known.
 
Mrs. Arbedul went to Peleliu Elementary School and later attended Mindszenty High School. She never went abroad to study and got married to Mr. Heinrick Arbedul. She had one son and two adopted daughters. She has been a homemaker all her life.
 
After getting married, Mrs. Arbedul and her husband visited Japan three times hoping to find her father, Mr. Akiyama. On their first visit they went to Osaka, second visit to Tokyo and third visit to Kyoto and Niigata. On the third and last visit, a Japanese fisherman named Mr. Seijiro, who became a family friend, on one of his visits to Palau, helped in the search for Mr. Akiyama and placed an ad in the paper in Japan about their search. Through the ad Mrs. Arbedul was able to connect with her father’s youngest brother in Niigata Prefecture.
 
She remembers a very old tree in Niigata that she saw and the “size was about eight people holding hands around the tree”. She loved the food and everything she experienced in Japan. She was very emotional and became teary when she told her story.