Sister Maurice Shares Memories
When the newly released movie: “Three Stripes in the Sun” was shown to us in 1955, I was in the first year of my initial formation (the Seminary) in the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The movie, which has since become a classic film, is the true story of the post-World War II first encounter of the American soldiers of the 27th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the “Wolfhounds,” with the children of Holy Family Home in Osaka, Japan.
The missionary work of the French Daughters of Charity in Japan had begun in October of 1933, with the establishment of their first house and a hospital in Osaka. Like the rest of the population, the Sisters were struggling with the devastation of the war, which ended in 1945. While trying to provide for the needs of the patients in the hospital and themselves, with only the bare essentials, they had to find ways to shelter and nourish the orphaned infants and children who were brought to them from the ruins of the bombed City.
By the Providence of God, the American soldiers of the Occupation Forces who were stationed in the area, met a Daughter of Charity, and discovered the plight of the children. The Sisters and volunteers were taking care of about 200 children, sheltered in the nearby dilapidated wooden barracks that the Japanese Army had vacated. Moved with compassion, the Wolfhound soldiers began to support them with food, clothing, medical care and financial assistance. They provided materials and labor for the building of the first real “home” for the orphans, Holy Family Home. Because of their work of love, the children still call them the “Gentle Wolfhounds.”
In 1954, one year before the movie was released, the first four American Daughters of Charity arrived in Wakayama, Japan, another city that had suffered severe damage during the war. So, watching the movie had a special meaning for us. It did not occur to me then that, 10 years later, in 1964, I would follow the Sisters as a missionary in Japan.
After Japanese Language study, I was sent to Wakayama to work as a nurse at the first Catholic hospital for handicapped children that our American Sisters had founded. My relationship with the Wolfhound soldiers began 12 years later in 1978 when I was missioned to Osaka, to the same Holy Family Home that was shown in the movie. The Baby Home and two ferroconcrete buildings had been added to the wooden structure that was built with the help of the soldiers. At that time, the Sisters’ community was in that same original building where some children were still living.
During my 36 years in Osaka, in addition to my nursing duties with the infants and toddlers in the Baby Home and the older children in Holy Family Home, my responsibilities included all of the English work for the institution. This meant that I was the contact person and correspondent for Holy Family Home and the 27th Infantry Regiment Wolfhounds, the liaison for the soldiers’ Christmas visits and the children’s summer visits to Hawaii. I also did translation work and assisted with procedures for adoptions through international adoption agencies. I wrote English letters for the director, and accompanied English-speaking visitors and adoptive parents who came to meet the child to be adopted.
I fondly recall those years at Holy Family Home as the happiest of my 50 years in Japan. I was, and still am, truly blessed with the friendship of so many good people, the soldiers and adoption families. The battalion leaders and soldiers of the Regiment rotate every two to three years, so it can be said that I have had the joy of “knowing” more than 10 generations of Wolfhounds!
Special mention must be made of The Historical Society of the 27th Infantry Regiment.No other infantry can boast of a unique relationship like this between American soldiers and children in a child care institution. Unlike the orphans of post-war Japan, these are children who have been abandoned, abused or come from broken homes. I am inspired by the car exemplified by these older veterans and their devotion to the happiness of the children. Along with the younger soldiers in active service, they preserve the legacy begun in 1949 and pass it on from one generation to the next. Their loving friendship and moral support remain firmly fixed in the life and history of the institution.
Last year I had to leave my loved mission in Japan for health reasons, and now
I live in Seton Residence, the Daughters of Charity retirement home in
Evansville. Fortunately, however, I am still in contact with the soldiers. Also, to my surprise, I have found out that there are veteran Wolfhounds living right here in Evansville! What a “small world!”
