Seventy-five years after the end of World War II, two men previously unaware of each other*s existence 〞 one living in Hiroshima Prefecture and the other far away in the French territory of New Caledonia 〞 renewed their ties of kinship online after they had been broken up by the vagaries of the war.

Robert Tagawa, 71, a resident of New Caledonia, talked in a video chat for the first time in early August with Tomonori Tagawa, 78, who lives in Shobara, Hiroshima Prefecture. Robert*s grandfather was Tomonori*s uncle.

Immediately after the war in the Pacific broke out, Kameichi Tagawa, Robert*s now deceased grandfather, was detained as an enemy alien and ousted from New Caledonia, to which he had emigrated. As a result, Kameichi was separated from his local family.