Veteran's mom burned his Japanese girlfriend's letters, keeping them apart for 70 years. Then he learned what she'd named her son
Duane Mann was just 23 years old when he had to leave but promised he'd bring Peggy Yamaguchi to the U.S.
91-year-old Duane Mann thought he had lost his first love forever. It was a guilt he carried for seven decades. Mann met Peggy Yamaguchi while he served in the Navy in Japan. He was just 23 years old when he had to leave her but promised he'd send for her. When he got back to Iowa, he discovered his father had spent all his savings. Mann tried to stay in contact with Yamaguchi through letters, but they slowly stopped coming. The last letter she wrote him broke his heart. He thought she had forgotten him until they found each other again in 2022. Theresa Wong (@twos_diary) shared Mann's story on her TikTok on March 28, 2023. It had 13.8 million views, 2.2 million likes, and 18,100 comments since.
@twos_diary Follow here or @duanemann_31 on IG for updates. #viralstory #sadstory #truestory #inspiring #love #lovestory #racism #korean #duanemann #peggyyamaguchi #booktok #historytok #heartbreak #thenotebook #closure #dancingwithyourghost #rememberthedancing ♬ Dancing With Your Ghost(抖音版) - 刀小刀
The last letter
Mann and Yamaguchi fell in love after 14 months of courtship, KETV7 revealed. They thought they had three more months to plan their wedding, but President Eisenhower abruptly pulled the Navy from Japan. With just a week left, Mann and Yamaguchi could not do anything. "I'm standing there, I'm 23 years old, and I'm in love with this girl, and I'm not going to leave her...I can see her standing there, crying and pregnant...We didn't have any time to get married. We were just trapped," Mann said.
He promised he'd send for her once he got to the U.S., but his family's situation derailed his plans. His father had spent all his savings after falling on hard times. Despite trying to keep in touch, the letters gradually stopped coming, and he thought she had moved on. Little did Mann know, his mother was responsible. She intercepted Yamaguchi's letters and burned them. The last letter he received was news that she had lost their baby and that she was marrying someone else.
@twos_diary Replying to @ackermann_mikasa1 Making sense of his parents' actions has been one of the toughest parts of the memoir for Duane to tackle. in 1954, Duane arrived home with a promise to marry the woman he had left behind during his service in Japan. But when he arrived home, he discovered that his father had spent all his savings. And when Peggy's letters stopped arriving, he learned that his mother had been burning them all along. This is how he forgave his parents. #forgiveness #letgo #family #duaneandpeggy #truelove #truestory #love #heartbreak #booktok #duanemann #duanetok #grandparentsoftiktok ♬ where is my mind (piano version) - your movie soundtrack
Named after her first love
Later on, Mann also got married and had six children, but even after all these years, he still felt guilty for the way he left Yamaguchi. "The big thing that really makes it hard is that she thinks I abandoned her, and I just can't get that out of my soul," he told the outlet. His children took to Facebook to help him find her. A month after their post, they discovered that Yamaguchi was just a few states away. KETV7 helped the two sweethearts reunite after 70 years.
Mann was finally able to tell Yamaguchi the truth: "I was worried that you thought I abandoned you. And I am here to tell you that I didn’t abandon you at all. I just couldn’t find you." Yamaguchi knew that even after all this time, he loved her. For 70 years, he kept photos of her in his wallet. But she did not forget him either. Yamaguchi revealed that her son's middle name was "Duane," named after her first love.
Racial prejudices
Sadly, back in the day, people were prejudiced about marrying people of other races. A 2017 poll from Pew Research Center found that 7% of American men believed that interracial marriage is bad for society, while 12% of American women believed the same. Additionally, 13% of men and 8% of women said they would be very or somewhat opposed to their close relative marrying someone of a different race. Mann told the news outlet, "She [mother] didn't want me to marry a Japanese girl. She wanted me to marry a girl from the church," which was why she burned Yamaguchi's letters and put a stop to their plans of getting married.
'All those years lost'
While viewers were happy that Mann and Yamaguchi could reunite before he passed away in 2023, they couldn't help but feel sad for all the years they lost because of his parents. @gizm0.bean wrote, "Parents be ruining the greatest things for their children, thinking they are right sometimes." @alisa21_09 commented, "Could this be called destiny? They met again even after so long; maybe they are really soulmates."
You can follow Theresa Wong (@twos_diary) on TikTok for more updates.
More on Scoop Upworthy
Share on Facebook
