Sunday, June 12 1921: Mary Agnes Ruggieri was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) Sunday, June 12, Mary Agnes Ruggieri was born in San Francisco. Her name before marriage was Mary Kiddie. After completing a degree in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1943, she continued on to pursue graduate studies in child welfare at the University of Minnesota. During the Pacific War, she volunteered to join the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1944. During World War II, about 150,000 American women worked for WAC and Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. These were the first women in American history to serve in the Army, with the exception of nurses.

Mary arrived in Yokohama in October 1946. She lived in the Kamaboko barracks near Bandai-cho, Naka Ward, Yokohama City for 1 and a half years until her retirement in April 1948. In addition to Yokohama, she took more than 4000 photos in Tokyo, Kamakura, Kyoto, Ise-Shima, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Sendai. 60 years later, Mary published From Japan With Love (1946 -1948), a book written by Portsmouth Publishing, in 2007 that described her experiences in Japan including these photos. It vividly portrays the state of Yokohama at that time, introducing personal letters and diaries.

He died on October 6, 2013. She was 92 years old.