Geta, giri and going to Japan

Oct. 11, 2021 • Joanna Boese

My mother, Naomi Boese (née Taguchi), grew up in Tsuyama, Okayama-ken, Japan. Her mother was a housewife and her father was a postal official. Mum was the youngest of four children; the eldest was a girl, and two boys followed. Mum completed high school but her family couldn’t afford to send her to college, so she joined the staff at the US military base in Iwakuni. She met my father, Selwyn Boese, sometime between 1955-57, when he was on discharge …