Reunion 25 years in the making as Bega's John Winson reconnects with Japanese family members

On a school trip in April 2023, Radford College's Dianne Fitzpatrick was approached by Kousuke Sawada, a young man who was holding a piece of paper with an address and a name scribbled on to it.

"He told me about his grandma's sister in Bega and wanted to know if I could track her down," Ms Fitzpatrick said.

"I said, 'let's just Google her'.

"I Googled her name [Chieko] and unfortunately she died in 2013, but her husband went on and survived another four years, his name was Fred [Winson], and he died in 2017."

Ms Fitzpatrick was keen to try to track down any family that Chieko and Fred had in hopes of reconnecting them again with their family in Kure, Hiroshima, so she contacted editor of the Bega District News Ben Smyth.

The Winson name was well known to Mr Smyth, but it remained to be seen if the Japanese link was there.

Chieko and Fred's son, John Winson, was on the Murray Silo Art and Mural Trail with his wife of 49 years Wendy, trekking as grey nomads, when his phone began to ring one afternoon in the pouring rain.

BDN journalist James 'Jimmy' Parker was on the other end, and he asked John if had any Japanese blood in him.

"My mum," John replied.

Jimmy cheered, his heart smiled.

The young man who approached Ms Fitzpatrick in Japan turned out to be Chieko's sister Michiyo's grandson, making John Winson his second cousin.

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"When Mum and Dad died, we lost touch with everyone," John said.

The last time they visited one another was in 1999, nearly 25 years ago.

Fred, who was originally from Yorkshire, left England when he was 15 because he didn't want to work in the mines, so he managed to find a job on a ship as a cabin boy.

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Jumping ship in Sydney, he and his mate randomly selected a train, which stopped at the heritage-listed 1921 Bombala railway station - a pre-cast concrete station building, with skillion roofed signal box, a corrugated iron WC lamp room, and a goods shed.

Curious as to why the train wasn't moving, they stuck their heads out to see if they could see anything, and a policeman 'caught' them.

"It wasn't a real jail, I don't think the policeman locked the door or anything," John said.

The policeman later let Fred know there was a farm hand position available at Lochiel, not far from Pambula on the NSW Far South Coast, where Fred reportedly became like the eldest son to the family.

After getting into a brawl at Pambula Pub, a policeman said, "If you want to fight, go and see that guy over there and sign up".

So Fred joined the Australian Army, which would lead to meeting his wife Chieko Sukuragi during his peacekeeping service overseas.

Though 8082 kilometres separate the families, a plan is currently being arranged so that John can reunite with his family in Japan through a video call.

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