Nobuo Moriwaki

Nobuo Moriwaki, 85, died peacefully on Dec. 26, 2006, at Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake.

He was born on Sept. 1, 1921 in Walville, Wash., to Tokitaro and Natusno Moriwaki. The eldest of 14 children, at the age of 16, his mother passed away and his father returned to Japan with most of his younger siblings. Nobuo and his brother Tadashi moved to the central Washington town of Ringold to work on farms. In 1943, Ringold was included in the boundaries of the Hanford reservation, forcing them to leave and resettle in the Moses Lake.

A World War II veteran, Nobuo was a U.S. Army sergeant in the Military Intelligence Service, serving in the U.S. Army General Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan where he was an interpreter and researcher of enemy weapons. While stationed in Japan, in 1947 he met and married Kaneko Yanagi in Kyoto. Nobuo finished his service in Fort Riley, Kan., and in 1949 Nobuo and Kaneko Moriwaki settled in Moses Lake.

Nobuo was a farmer, interpreter for the Japanese Agricultural Trainee Program and he actively supported his four children's activities including scouting and secondary education. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Kaneko; his children Arthur, Moses Lake; Ruby Webster, Lexington, Minn.; Clarence, Bainbridge Island; Pearl Young, Stafford, Va.; and grandchildren James Goehring, Theresa Young and Christina Young.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 30, at Kayser's Chapel of Memories with Rev. Floyd Wilks officiating. Arrangements are in care of Kayser's Chapel and Crematory, Moses Lake.