Keiko Holmes

Keiko Holmes (恵子・ホームズ^?) is a Japanese coordinator for a charity named Agape, which helps to promote reconciliation between Japan and her former World War II prisoners of war (POWs). She lectures at universities and schools, and was awarded the O.B.E.

Keiko was born in Kiwa-cho, Kumano, Mie Prefecture, Japan in 1948. She travelled to Tokyo to study, and there met Paul Holmes, a visiting business man from England. They married and then moved to London with their sons Daniel and Christopher in 1979.

Paul was killed in an air accident in 1984 while on a business trip. They had been together for 15 years. Through Paul, Keiko had converted to Christianity. During their time in Japan, while living in Mie the couple had come across a memorial stone laid for 16 British army soldiers. The soldiers had died in the local area called Iruka, now called Kiwa-cho, while working as prisoners in a copper mine. The local people had created the memorial and had written the names of the soldiers on the memorial. The Ikura mine was different from many others because the British soldiers worked side by side with Japanese miners.

When Keiko returned to Mie for a trip after Paul's death, she went back to the memorial site and was surprised to see that it had been improved into a memorial garden with a marble headstone and kept beautifully decorated with flowers. The soldiers' names had been engraved on a large copper cross.

Holmes had the inspiration to organise reconciliation trips for ex-POWs of Ikura during her long period of mourning for her husband.

In 1991, Holmes attended the annual conference of the British Far East Prisoners of War Association in London.

In October 1992, Holmes took 26 FEPOWs and two widows back to attend a memorial service at the Iruka (now called Itaya) memorial. These men and woman had for 50 years held hatred and bitterness for Japan and its people. Upon arrive at the memorial and witnessing the beauty of the memorial donated by the local people and receiving their sincere apologies the 50 years of hate gave way to new positive feelings and healing.

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