Iowa Korean War Veteran Reunited With Long Lost Love After 70 Years
For those of you that have lost hope for finding love, this is your sign not to give up!
Duane Mann's search for his long-lost love from Japan captured the hearts of the world when they were reunited after 70 years.
Where do you go when you need help finding someone? If you said the police you'd be wrong. Everyone knows the best detectives are Facebook users. They will find anyone ANYWHERE, and that is exactly what helped Duane Mann.
KETV News Watch 7 created a story of Duane Mann's search for his lost love Peggy Yamaguchi. The 70-year-old's journey compelled strangers to help find Peggy. After only 9 days of posting and sharing on Facebook, Peggy was found.
The veteran from Woodbine Iowa met Yamaguchi when he was stationed in Yokosuka Japan. She was pregnant when the 22-year-old Iowa man was ordered back to the United States. He had to leave Peggy behind, but he promised he would send for her and marry her.
However, when Duane returned home to Iowa, his father had fallen into hard times and used all his money. Duane had been writing to Peggy, but eventually, her letters stopped coming... or so he thought.
Turns out that Duane's mother was burning Peggy's letters. She did not want her son to marry a Japanese woman. One final letter arrived. Peggy wrote she lost the baby and married someone else.
"It was over. It set in, that idea that I abandoned her just wore me out and that's not an honorable thing to do," Duane said.
Duane's story was shared around the world, even in the Japan Huffington Post. Viewers emailed and posted obituaries and photos, wondering if they had found Peggy.
Only 9 days after the story was posted, Peggy was found, and she wasn't over the ocean in Japan. In fact, she was just over the Mississippi, 650 miles away from Duane the whole time.
The news had made contact with Peggy's oldest son.
"I thought 'what the heck is going on here? What kind of scam artist is this one?'" said Rich Sedenquist, Peggy's oldest son. The news reporter asked him if Peggy Yamaguchi was his mother. "One way to find out," he said. "I took my Bluetooth headphones over there, brought your video clip and I played it and she right away said, 'I remember him. He really loved me.'"
Peggy is currently 91 years old, living with her Navy husband in Michigan. Together they raised 3 sons.
When the two lost loves were reunited they were happy and comfortable. They reminisced on their past times together and even shared some hugs and kisses. Duane showed Peggy that he had kept her photos in his wallet all these years. He really wanted her to know that he never abandoned her, he just could not find her.
Duane left an impression on Peggy too. Her son, Mike's middle name is Duane.
"Duane. D-U-A-N-E. Now it just came to light how I really got that name and it wasn't by happenstance, it was for a reason," said Mike Sedenquist.
"It's really been a freeing experience for me," Duane said. He was finally able to find peace when he informed Peggy that he had never given up on her.
If there is a lesson to be learned here, it's to never give up and keep believing in love!
Read more details here: KETV
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