Now that we are days away from driving across the country, it looks as though we may have really found a home for my husband's grandfather's stuff and perhaps even for some of my mother-in-law's stuff. Grandfather went to the University of Iowa back at the very beginning of the 20th century, getting a master's degree. He wasn't the very first Japanese student but he was among the early graduates and he did eventually get to be pretty well-known.
I had contacted Iowa months ago, had a brief exchange of emails, and then nothing. Since we will be driving I80 eastward and Iowa is more or less the middle of the journey, my husband pushed himself to contact the fellow I had been emailing. Turns out the delay was due to some changes in the hiring and focus but now we have at least a firm commitment to meet with some representative bits. The fellow from UI is also a big fan of Japanese films so when he found out that my husband's mother had been a very well-known actress for Toho Studios and that we had some of her films and other sorts of souvenirs and memorabilia he was quite excited.
To me some of the more interesting stuff from Grandfather are the correspondence he sent back to both Japan and the US from Siberia during the Russian revolution. He took a boat trip there as a foreign correspondent because of his interest in socialism, leaving his wife and three children in the States. It sounds as though it was a chaotic and interesting trip.
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