Yuriko Naito is "Tokyo Lily". The name Yuriko means lily in Japanese.
Born in Atago-sho Shiba-ku Tokyo in 1919, Yuriko was only four when she watched the Great Kanto earthquake swallow up her fellow citizens. Over 100,000 people perished.
The next year, Yuriko's father died suddenly—plunging her family into poverty.
As her mother struggled to raise five young children on her own, Yuriko was sold into servitude to a doctor’s family at the tender age of 13. Every morning as she heaved the family's baby onto her back, she cried because the family's daughter her exact age was hoisting school books onto her back.
When Yuriko was in her early 20's, she was finally released from her work contract and returned home to finish school. But not long after, WWII began and Yuriko found herself running to bomb shelters. The 1945 firebombing of Tokyo killed over 100,000 civilians and was the most destructive air raid ever in human history.
Despite watching friends and neighbors die at the hands of Americans, Yuriko married an Occupation soldier from Texas. He was black, and the segregated south was her first experience in the U.S.
This is Yuriko's story about being a war bride, a wife, a mother, an artist, a poet, a dancer, a seamstress and a home chef.
Please help us complete this film. We need your support to digitize thousands of old photos and super 8mm footage, and to hire an illustrator to fill in the gaps with WWII Japan images. Additionally, we are looking to bring onboard an archival researcher and a composer. Every one of your donations will be acknowledged on the film's website, and we will also gift you with a free screening of the finished project.
Here's our first trailer:
