Today we honor the birth of Ted Perez by working diligently under the watchful eye of the sun and celebrating to capacity at the side of the moon.
Captained by Masaharu Takanuchi, the Japanese whaler Kinjo-Maru was both responsible for the deaths of Isadora Louise and Leon Santiago Perez as well as the rescue of Ted ‘Kichirou’ Perez.
Nearing the end of the pregnancy with what was to become their first child, Isadora and Don Leon were on a six-day tour of the Okinawa Prefecture when tragedy found them.
At roughly four o’clock on the afternoon of September 2nd, 1917 amidst a dense fog, the Kinjo-Maru broadsided the Perez vessel, the Masuyo, ripping clean through the vastly outsized berth.
According to ship records, the Kinjo-Maru dropped anchor immediately and issued a four-skiff rescue team. The first group to reach the wreckage found splinters of what was once the Masuyo, general debris and an infant child.
Historian Joshua Lanskovich of Rochester University offers the following: “Isadora and Leon Perez, who had traveled to the Far East specifically for the birth of their first child, were thrown to the sea upon impact. Don Leon received a mortal blow to his skull. This might have come upon impact or once at sea. Isadora, perhaps more in shock than physically harmed, gave birth to Ted and soon then expired. An American tragedy. A Japanese blessing.”