Love never died all those 48 years

Press, 20 December 1985, Page 6

Love never died all those 48 years

NZPA-AFP Fukuoka, Japan A 56-year-old Japanese woman is finally to marry her true love — a Chinese man whom she tracked down after a 48-year separation. Kimiko Saita, a retired nurse in the southern city of Fukuoka, will leave Japan on Christmas Eve for Shanghai, where her future husband awaits.

. Ms Saita and Huang Boping, a 67-year-old former schoolmaster, plan to settle in the eastern Chinese port city. They had first met when Ms Saita was a 17-year-old tourist and Mr Huang was working in a shop in the

eastern town of Qingdao, she said. They made plans to marry after she returned to Japan but the Sino-Japanese war broke out in July, 1937, ending their engagement But Ms Saita could not forget her love for Mr Huang, and it forced her to seek a divorce from the Japanese man she was obliged to marry. It took determined effort and research, but she finally found her long-lost love again. He had also been married, but his wife had died five years ago and his children were grown up and married. • The newlyweds would like to return to Qingdao for their honeymoon.