お願いします、お願いです、私の瞬間を与えます。
Please, I beg  you, give me a moment.

In the Yokohama Gaijin Bochi, there is a monument, marking a grave, inscribed in Japanese:

"Ikezumi Family”

If you compare the above, with the below, you will see that this monument occupies the site of a previous monument.

This is the grave of my grandfather, who died in Japan in 1915 on March 28th in Yokohama General Hospital.

Grandmother, chose a low profile monument because of the frequent earthquakes, but on September 1st, 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck, and there was a ground liquefaction incident in the Gaijin Bochi, which resulted in a layer of mud some 600mm deep, being deposited, and this covered Grandfather’s grave, completely hiding it.

Some time afterwards, in the 1980s I believe, a new grave was dug on what was innocently believed to be a vacant plot.

The undertakers dug so accurately, that they completely missed finding the monument rails, but found the cross, which they assumed had arrived there during a mud slide.  The cross was respectfully placed nearby, and is still there today.

If you examine the Zoroastrian monument, visible in both pictures, you can plainly see how the ground level has been raised, and how Grandfather’s Grave was completely hidden.

Please understand, there is no blame to be considered here.  My desire is only to correct history.

Grandfather, Talbot Richard Smith worked for the Japanese, commissioning the Paper Mill, now run by Fuji, in Ebetsu, Hokaido, and among other things, a Gold Mine, the Taio mine I believe, on Kyushu.

Ideally I would like the rails of the old monument to be carefully excavated, and re-laid around the new monument.  The inscriptions are written on the rails.  The inscription visible in the photograph above is restored here:

What would be nice, as a quick repair, would be to place the original cross,   which the undertakers found, and respectfully placed nearby,  suitably labelled with a small plaque, written in English, and Japanese, in a similar position, on the new monument, to where it lay on the original, now buried monument.  Wooden, or plastic cushions to prevent scratching of the stonework, would be advisable, and acceptable.

This is an image of the cross extracted from the old photograph, above.

This recent photograph, showing the cross, left nearby.

A recent photograph, detailing the inscription on the cross:

I AM THE RESURRECTION

AND THE LIFE

Thank you for reading this.

If you can put me in contact with the Ikezumi family who own this monument, my gratitude would be beyond measure.

Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita.
どうもありがとうございました

David Richard Smith.