Talk:Momofuku Ando/Archives/2015

Japanese Parents?

• http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/business/worldbusiness/09ando.html

January 9, 2007

Momofuku Ando, 96, Dies; Invented Instant Ramen

By Dennis Hevesi

Born on March 5, 1910, in Taiwan while it was under Japanese occupation, Mr. Ando was a son of Japanese parents who had moved there from Osaka. When he was 23, he returned to Japan and, while a student at Ritsumeikan University, ran several clothing companies. In 1948, he started a company that produced salt; it changed its name to Nissin 10 years later. He is survived by his wife, Masako, two sons and a daughter.

Most, if not all, papers in Taiwan claimed he was son of Taiwanese parents of a wealthy clan in Tainan. They interviewed some very old clan members and found they did not communicate often.Their lack of communication could be because they had gastritis. -- Toytoy 18:11, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I'll take the NYT as the authoritative source then. Jpatokal 05:26, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

...although I'm confused by how his grandparents could be in Taiwan if his parents moved from Japan!? Jpatokal 05:27, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

It also seems unlikely that he would have a Chinese name if he was Japanese. --Auximines 09:41, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

New York Times, for this particular piece of news, is merely a "Gaijin" trying to figure out what the heck this Ando Momofuku was all about. Mistaking Ando as "born into a Japanese family in Taiwan" is understandable. But, a mistake is a mistake. It has to be corrected. Ando, is very much like Sadaharu Oh, the home-run king of Japan. Oh is also Taiwanese Japanese. The difference is, Oh has kept his Taiwanese citizenship even today. The fact that Japanese have not tried to make it an issue proves taht Japanese are not as narrow-minded as some people in the West have tried to paint for several decades. --User:71.106.241.187

It's better to cite sources to back up these arguments and discuss them in talk page before editing the article. Anyway, I am of the same opinion with you about Ando's ethnic origin: Ando was Taiwanese ethnically (but Sadaharu Oh's case is quite different, I think). I am still in searching of the sources. [1][2][3]Here are some news article on major Taiwanese news media, in which some clan members of Mr. Go were interviewed, and I found their descriptions of Mr. Go Bek Hok(supposed to be Mr. Ando) are quite detailed and consistent. Mr. Go's clan still owns a large piece of land near his birthplace. One of them had communicated by letter with Mr. Go years ago for the buried place of their ancestors. The name of his former wife (a Taiwanese) is also mentioned in these news reports. I would like to add more information in here if time is available. 163.28.64.50 03:33, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Momofuku's Parants Were Japaneese born living in Taiwan

• http://www.tbo.com/life/food/MGBGKZWT0XE.html
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6749051

--68.207.206.69 06:38, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

The Los Angeles Times says Ando was born to Taiwanese parents. [4] East coast vs. west coast? Also, the wikipedia article itself says "After World War II, Ando became a Japanese citizen..." which would infer that he *wasn't* a Japanese citizen before then? Sorry, I don't know the authoratative source for that. Edjusted 07:31, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I think his case illustrates the fluidity of race and ethnicity between japan and china/taiwan. The colonial japanese government made a concerted effort to integrate taiwanese subjects into the japanese national identity. Some savvy individuals were able to use that to their advantage, and came to see themselves as japanese nationals. Even the former ROC President Lee Teng-hui has publicly stated that he considers himself to be japanese to some extent. The west of course has a hard time differentiating between national identity and ethnicity. moko 11:31, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

1934-1946

So what did the guy doing this period? It skips from him attending university to being jailed for tax evasion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.166.215.220 (talk) 15:53, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Yes, the article is silent on his activities during the war years.98.252.94.237 (talk) 02:03, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Death

Pastafarians worldwide have declared January 5th a day of mourning.  ALKIVAR™ ☢ 01:30, 7 January 2007 (UTC)