The Pennington Post, 02/02/2006
All the fuss about Benjamin Franklin's birthday brought to mind a dinner held by the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence in a Philadelphia hotel in 1972. A roll of the signers was called, and descendants of each who were present stood up.
Even 192 years after he died, Ben Franklin could still stir up some astonishment. When Ben's name was called, one of the descendants who stood up was Japanese.
Her name was Yukiko Irwin, Franklin's great-great-great-great granddaughter. ... Robert Irwin, went to Japan in 1866 as agent for an American steamship company, only 12 years after Commodore Matthew C. Perry...Within 10 years, Irwin had helped found the Mitsui Trading Co.,....[floatr]
Yuki, as she was called, was a high school student during World War II, and saw her family lose everything because of the war. It was a disturbing time to be a Japanese descendant of Benjamin Franklin....more...
