Gwen Harold Terasaki

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113058754/gwendolen-terasaki

Knoxville News-Sentinel, The (TN) - Saturday, January 19, 1991

SUBJECT OF MOVIE, GWEN TERASAKI, DIES

A native Johnson City woman, whose marriage and life with a Japanese diplomat caught in the throes of World War II became a hit American movie, has died at her daughter's home in Casper, Wyo.

Gwen Harold Terasaki, 84, died Dec. 15, according to word just reaching friends here. Her only child, Mariko, was lecturing in Japan when her mother died of pneumonia.

Gwen Harold was 23 she left her hometown in Johnson City to visit an aunt in Washington. At a reception one afternoon at the Japanese Embassy, she met a tall, handsome embassy attache.

In 1931, she and Hidenari "Terry" Terasaki were married. In the years before the war, they spent time both in the U.S. and Japan as he served in various Japanese diplomatic posts.

In a book about their life, Mrs. Terasaki told of her husband's dedication to peace and his fight to stop the growing war party in Japan. The book later was made into a movie, "Bridge to the Sun," starring Caroll Baker as Mrs. Terasaki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_to_the_Sun

The Terasaki's were in Washington the day the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. Her husband's last diplomatic effort was trying to get a personal message sent between President Roosevelt and Japanese Emperor Hirohito, but the message was blocked in Japan.

The couple and their daughter were interned with the Japanese diplomatic corps at Hot Springs, Va., before being sent to Japan on an ship in exchange for American diplomats on a similar ship.

During the war, the Terasaki's took refuge in the Japanese hills, often sick, depressed and near starvation, she wrote in her book. At the war's end, her husband served as a liaison between the Japanese emperor and American commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

But she wrote in her book that the war had broken her husband's heart and the physical strain on him was too much. While she and their daughter, then 17, were visiting the U.S. in 1952, he died.

From diaries she had kept, she decided to write the story of an American woman's life in Japan during the war, one with a happy marriage despite tragic circumstances.

Mrs. Terasaki returned to live in Johnson City after her husband's death, but traveled widely across the country as a speaker. She had moved to Casper four years ago to be near her daughter and two grandsons.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Feb. 17 at Watauga Avenue Presbyterian Church in Johnson City. Her ashes have been interned in the family's cemetery plot in Johnson City.

Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - Thursday, December 20, 1990

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR GWEN TERASAKI DIES

Gwen Harold Terasaki, whose book about her family's experiences in World War II Japan became a best seller and a movie, died Saturday. She was 84.

Mrs. Terasaki, author of Bridge to the Sun, died after a brief illness.

The Johnson City, Tenn., native married Hidenari Terasaki, a diplomat at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, in 1931. They and their daughter, Mariko, spent World War II in Japan.

Mrs. Terasaki returned to Johnson City in 1949 and moved to Casper to be with her daughter in 1986. Her husband died in 1951.

Bridge to the Sun was published in 1957. The movie premiered in Johnson City in 1961.

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Terasaki is survived by two grandsons and two great grandchildren.