End of a quest: Villafuerte showing a mobile phone with a photo of his father, a Japanese imperial army officer, during an interview at his home in San Pablo, Laguna. — AFP
After a lifetime of searching, Jose Villafuerte has finally found the Japanese father he lost during the dark years of World War II in the occupied Philippines.
The 82-year-old former gravedigger was still in the womb of his Filipina mother, Benita Abril, when her partner, imperial army officer Ginjiro Takei, returned to Japan during its brutal occupation of the archipelago from 1942-45.
