Ayako Oshiro Pfeiffer

In August of last year, my wife, Ayako, was diagnosed with Hepatic Carcenoma, liver cancer. She was referred to Shands hospital in Gainesville, Florida for treatment. As we began periodic treks to the south toward Gainesville and as we explored different paths namely off the Interstate, we took the extra time to just talk. We talked of our lives together, but I kept pushing for more information about her life. What follows is my take on one of those stories she related.

She was born two years before what is characterized by some historians as the most calamitous battle of the Pacific part ofWWII- the Battle of Okinawa. That battle and the occupation following It means that almost until the end of the Korean War, life in Okinawa was very poor. DDT was in the air, healthcare was scarce, food was not abundant. It was very different from the lives of her counterparts like me who were born in the United States. Love though, particularly the love of family, was not in short supply. It abounded then as now.

July 17, 1943: Henoko, Nago Shi, Okinawa – a baby was born of Miyoko Shimabukuro. Miyoko was an extraordinarily beautiful woman (I met her in 2015 when she was a gorgeous 94). Her beauty was such that she often had gentleman callers. Because of that she was also unsure of just who the father was. She had been dating Matsujiro Oshiro for well over a year before July 17. Their relationship was well- known in the local communities of Kushi and Henoko. It was assumed by most neighbors that Matsujiro was the father. Local family leaders representing the Shimabukuros and Oshiros met soon after the baby’s birth to discus and establish familial obligations.

Representing the Oshiro family were brothers, Matsuyuki and Matsuiu of Henoko. A third brother was second son Matsujiro who was in Tokyo (the same one who courted Miyoko). He had been conscripted into the Japanese Army while caring for a sick aunt in Tokyo. As crucial battles were edging closer and closer to Okinawa, he and his fellow soldiers were endlessly training and retraining. He was secure, though, in his expectations that his two brothers would do the right thing at home with respect to the baby girl.

As relations and neighbors do everywhere when faced with a cute, pink, new-born with a shock of jet-black hair, witnesses ooh and awed while praising the new mother. Brother Matsuiu, though, focused on the new infant’s feet. Each foot was a near- perfect rectangle. Somewhat unusual, but a common feature of the feet of members of the Oshiro family. “She is Oshiro” he said. From that moment she was Ayako Oshiro. Matsujiro was her father, Miyoko, her mother. Matsuyuki and Matsuiu were the uncles (with the later addition of Uncle Tokusei, the youngest brother).

Matsujiro’s military unit was deployed to Okinawa in the fall of 1944. He was likely a valued soldier as he knew useful things about Okinawan geography and culture including the local language. Family members recalled seeing him on a visit to Henoko late in 1944. Ayako has a memory (probably an indirect one) where Matsujiro asked his brothers to watch over her should something befall him in the battles to come. The brothers did that and through their children, the Oshiros continue to do that today.

She spent some of her childhood dealing with human detritus that the tides washed up from the Southern part of the island where most of the battles took place. This is a phenomenon that today washes and polishes glass trash washed through the same tidal action into glass beads used in jewelry making. Ayako and her classmates collected the remnants of bones, uniforms, and pieces of metal of the soldiery of many countries including Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, China, and others. The remains of many civilians were included. The villagers from Henoko ceremoniously laid all the of material to rest in a sepulcher-like coral head overlooking the bay where material was found, a natural grave.

In 1965, guided by a priestess- a Noro - remnants were found in a cave on the Urasoe - Maeda Escarpment in Southern Okinawan said to posses the soul of Matsujiro Oshiro. A place Americans know as “Hacksaw Ridge” is near this spot. The findindgs bought peace to Ayako and her family.

In 1968, our paths crossed in Henoko. Brother Matsuiu was the Town’s mayor in those days. We ultimately fell in love and married and in 1969 traveled to Florida. We moved to Tallahassee in 1972 and moved to a piece of land in nearby Greensboro in 1974.

In 1985, Ayako proudly became a citizen of the United States. She was most proud of being able to vote. She did this religiously as a privilege and an obligation. Educating herself and her family about issues underlying the act of voting were most important to her.

She was a long-time employee of Publix Supermarkets in Tallahassee.

In our time together, travels to her home in Okinawa were most important as in Okinawa family units and the ties that bind them underpin all aspects of life. Visits home were obligatory to her.

On July 29, 2025 Ayako died in Hospice at the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Big Bend Hospice took care of her through her final moments. Just as with the Simabukuros and Oshiros of more than eighty years ago, family was there with her. We will hold a remembrance of her life as our lives settle down a bit. She was a very special person. It was my good fortune that our time on this planet converged.

She is survived by her husband Jay of fifty-six years and three sons, Harrison, Matsujiro, and Tokusei. She loved her daughters-in-law Rebecca and Summer and four grandchildren, Juliette, Jordon, Rickson, and Quincy.