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Study and Homestay in New Zealand Service

About Us | Resumé | Raison d’etre

Our overseas study and homestay programs are offered as a non- profit operation in Japan because of lessons learned in life, particularly those related to parenthood and the advent of middle age, and recent political and economic developments in the United States and East Asia which point to growing instability and the danger of history repeating itself.

Insofar as mankind is so often inclined not to learn the lessons of history and prone to repeat it’s mistakes, these programs are offered with the idea that if sufficient people favourably experience foreign life first hand, then it will be so much more difficult for demagogues to whip up anti-foreign sentiment in times of economic and social stress.

Accordingly, this page is dedicated to the young people pictured on it in the hope that our sons and their friends and contemporaries, both in Japan and overseas, do not repeat the mistakes of their grandparent’s generation.

Ivan Thomas Francis, born in London, England at the turn of the century to Anglo-Welsh parents, immigrated to New Zealand with his family after World War I. He is pictured here as a lieutenant in the North Auckland Regiment of the RNZIR , Third New Zealand Division after he had been invalided home from fighting the Japanese in the Solomon islands campaign. As a result of experiences in Guadalcanal and other parts of the Solomons and the influence of wartime propaganda, he hated the Japanese, so it is great irony that his son married one. It is to my great sorrow that he never got to meet his daughter-in-law or his grandsons, as I know he would have loved them all.

Frances (Frankie) Josephine Francis, born in Marton, New Zealand to Anglo/Welsh/Irish parents. She married Ivan in Auckland and nursed him back to health after his arrival back home from the war in the Pacific. Pictured here circa 1939, she was so happy that her errant younger son had done so well when he finally got married.She lived long enough to see her Anglo/Irish/Welsh/Japanese first grandson.

Warwick Francis arrived in Japan ex hospital in Hong Kong, having taken a wrong turn on a hitch hiking trip across Eurasia to London University during which he drank some bad water in India and got too friendly with Chinese mortar fire in northern Thailand. Arriving in Japan just out of hospital in Hong Kong and not intending to stay too long in Japan, he went into the parenting, consulting and English teaching businesses.

Resumé

Shigeru Christopher Francis, born in Aiku Hospital, Tokyo. Of decidedly mixed descent, - 12.5% each of English and Irish, 25% Welsh and 50% Japanese, (to the best of our knowledge) he and his brother Kei (below) are both bi-lingual and bi-cultural and have some claim to being international citizens. Chris is currently at Auckland University after graduating from Mount Albert Grammar School (MAGS) also in Auckland. The school is very multicultural and has students of 60 nationalities. He has vague ideas of becoming a pilot (I think). However, his very good progress with languages -English, Japanese and Chinese and a major in Asian Business may be pointing him in another direction.

Kei Marcus Francis, born in the Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, graduated like his brother Chris from the local junior high school in Yokohama . He loves sports, the outdoors and animals, especially his cat. He has followed his brother at MAGS and like him, first stayed at the school dormitory. After graduatng frm MAGS he is now in the process of deciding what to do with his life.

The extended family farewell party for Chris before he left for high school in Auckland, New Zealand in 1998. Pictured here surrounded by her offspring is his grandmother who lived through the war and the B-29 fire raids in Kawasaki to see her daughter marry a foreigner. Having worked hard all her life, like most of her generation, to build the success that is modern Japan, she appreciates living in peace and the company of her noisy mixed brood of grandchildren who have grown up together. May they and their friends and contemporaries not repeat the mistakes of their forebears.

Mrs Fuyo Tamiya celebrating her 80th birthday with her grandchildren at a Chinese restaurant in Yokohama.

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Study and Homestay in New Zealand Service
About Us \| Resumé \| Raison d’etre
Our overseas study and homestay programs are offered as a non- profit operation in Japan because of lessons learned in life, particularly those related to parenthood and the advent of middle age, and recent political and economic developments in the United States and East Asia which point to growing instability and the danger of history repeating itself. Insofar as mankind is so often inclined not to learn the lessons of history and prone to repeat it’s mistakes, these programs are offered with the idea that if sufficient people favourably experience foreign life first hand, then it will be so much more difficult for demagogues to whip up anti-foreign sentiment in times of economic and social stress. Accordingly, this page is dedicated to the young people pictured on it in the hope that our sons and their friends and contemporaries, both in Japan and overseas, do not repeat the mistakes of their grandparent’s generation.
	Ivan Thomas Francis, born in London, England at the turn of the century to Anglo-Welsh parents, immigrated to New Zealand with his family after World War I. He is pictured here as a lieutenant in the North Auckland Regiment of the RNZIR , Third New Zealand Division after he had been invalided home from fighting the Japanese in the Solomon islands campaign. As a result of experiences in Guadalcanal and other parts of the Solomons and the influence of wartime propaganda, he hated the Japanese, so it is great irony that his son married one. It is to my great sorrow that he never got to meet his daughter-in-law or his grandsons, as I know he would have loved them all.
	Frances (Frankie) Josephine Francis, born in Marton, New Zealand to Anglo/Welsh/Irish parents. She married Ivan in Auckland and nursed him back to health after his arrival back home from the war in the Pacific. Pictured here circa 1939, she was so happy that her errant younger son had done so well when he finally got married.She lived long enough to see her Anglo/Irish/Welsh/Japanese first grandson.
	Warwick Francis arrived in Japan ex hospital in Hong Kong, having taken a wrong turn on a hitch hiking trip across Eurasia to London University during which he drank some bad water in India and got too friendly with Chinese mortar fire in northern Thailand. Arriving in Japan just out of hospital in Hong Kong and not intending to stay too long in Japan, he went into the parenting, consulting and English teaching businesses. Resumé


	Shigeru Christopher Francis, born in Aiku Hospital, Tokyo. Of decidedly mixed descent, - 12.5% each of English and Irish, 25% Welsh and 50% Japanese, (to the best of our knowledge) he and his brother Kei (below) are both bi-lingual and bi-cultural and have some claim to being international citizens. Chris is currently at Auckland University after graduating from Mount Albert Grammar School (MAGS) also in Auckland. The school is very multicultural and has students of 60 nationalities. He has vague ideas of becoming a pilot (I think). However, his very good progress with languages -English, Japanese and Chinese and a major in Asian Business may be pointing him in another direction.
	Kei Marcus Francis, born in the Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, graduated like his brother Chris from the local junior high school in Yokohama . He loves sports, the outdoors and animals, especially his cat. He has followed his brother at MAGS and like him, first stayed at the school dormitory. After graduatng frm MAGS he is now in the process of deciding what to do with his life.
	The extended family farewell party for Chris before he left for high school in Auckland, New Zealand in 1998. Pictured here surrounded by her offspring is his grandmother who lived through the war and the B-29 fire raids in Kawasaki to see her daughter marry a foreigner. Having worked hard all her life, like most of her generation, to build the success that is modern Japan, she appreciates living in peace and the company of her noisy mixed brood of grandchildren who have grown up together. May they and their friends and contemporaries not repeat the mistakes of their forebears.

Mrs Fuyo Tamiya celebrating her 80th birthday with her grandchildren at a Chinese restaurant in Yokohama. Top of Page