For some people, love never comes along. For others, something gets in the way. One Korean War veteran fell in love 70 years ago and thought he’d never see her again.
Duane Mann is 91 years young. When he was serving this country over half a century ago, during the Korean War, he met a young lady in Japan. Her name was Peggy Yamaguchi, reports KETV.
When Mann was 22, he received his orders from the United States Navy: he was being sent back to the United States. Peggy was pregnant and didn’t accompany him. He promised her, however, that he’d send for her. That never happened.
Mann and his love corresponded like everyone did back then, by what we now call “snail mail.” But one day her letters stopped coming. Little did Mann know, but his mother was burning them because she didn’t want him to marry a Japanese girl. So Mann had to go on with his life. He never found out that Peggy lost the baby. And he missed her every day.
Mann said, “It was over, it set in that idea that I abandoned her, just wore me out. That’s not an honorable thing to do.”
Last month, Mann’s story of love and loss went around the world. Japanese media sources shared the story and lovers of love got busy trying to help Mann and Peggy find each other.
A man named Rich Sedenquist was located finally and he turned out to be Peggy’s son from the man she married after she and Mann lost contact. He helped to reunite the two. Peggy was not as far away as Mann had thought, having married another military man and moved to the states.
Peggy’s son showed his mother a picture of Mann and she said, “I remember him, he really loved me, you know.”
Reports KETV, “[a]n article dated February 3, 1956 from the local Escanaba newspaper, The Daily Press, was the key in finding Yamaguchi. It was discovered by a woman in Vancouver, Canada, who saw Duane Mann’s story online…The 23-year-old is a researcher for the History Channel. She said she found the old newspaper article with the headline ‘Tokyo bride makes life in Escanaba [Michigan].’ That article provided a last name and an address to go on.”
After being reunited, Mann told Peggy that he had kept her photo in his wallet all those decades. And Mann discovered that Peggy gave her son his name as a middle name.
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Peggy is still married to the man she married after she lost contact with Mann. They have three sons, but she never forgot the love she had for Mann. And Mann definitely never forgot about his Peggy.
