August 1945 brought about the liberation of Prisoners of War (POW)s in Japan as World War II came to its end. Their liberation brought more than three years of a dark chapter to a close.

For many POWs, their time as captives began in the Spring of 1942 with the Bataan Death March, where soldiers marched for sixty or more miles and thousands did not survive. In his final months as a captive, American POW Carl Ruse weighed eighty pounds, had a broken leg, and could barely stand.

With a pair of crutches made from scrap wood, he hobbled outside the prison factory in Yokkaichi Japan to wave to an American airplane flying overhead. Crewmen aboard rolled out drums of food for the hungry prisoners that floated into the camp under parachutes.

During that year, a young boy working in the factory began slipping desperately needed food to Ruse in compassion for his circumstances during his final grim year in Japan. When the USS Rescue Hospital ship arrived to take the prisoners home, Ruse saw to it that some of the food from the many supply drops were left the boy.

In return, the boy gave a photo of himself to Ruse. Ruse was stripped of his prison clothes and makeshift crutches that were thrown into the ocean, his minimal remaining possessions that he carried onto the ship, he boarded the ship with his own prison photo, and the photo of the boy in hand.

Ruse would carry the photo for the rest of his life, never knowing the name of the boy. Three years before Carl Ruse’ death, in 2000, Carl’s Grandson Tim interviewed him about his wartime experience as a part of a school project.

Ruse told his story to his Grandson while being recorded on a VHS tape, and the experience became a treasured memory for Tim. Carl passed away only three years later, and when Tim became a father in 2007, his oldest son was named after his Great Grandfather.

To pass on the memories of his son’s namesake, Tim began compiling narratives and history about his POW experience. This project eventually expanded into a published book.

The publishing of the book was only the beginning. Connections made during the process of learning led to finding friends with history on both sides of the war that brought about unexplainable synchronicity in human stories.

Ultimately, this is the story of the search for “the boy” who had given food to Carl, and on how the formative impact of kindness and compassion can shape generations to come. In an attempt to find the boy, Tim contacted Kinue Tokudome, who had spent years befriending, connecting, and advocating for POWs of Japan.

The search circuitously brought together Kinue with a friend from her college years, Tamiki Mizuno, who also was remarkably connected to the story. .