A US Vietnam War veteran, now in his 70s, is searching for a son he fathered with a Taiwanese woman in the late 1960s, but never met.
The black American man, Harvey Woods, said he has been trying for many years to locate his son and the Taiwanese woman, with whom he had a relationship when he was stationed in Taiwan from 1966 to 1967.
His daughter, Leah Woods Newton, has enlisted the help of Facebook users to help find the man.
Woods served as a US Airman 2nd Class in the 2165th Communications Squadron at Chingchuankang (清泉崗) Air Base in Taichung.
It was during that time that he met a Taiwanese woman named Ming Ying-chi (or possibly Chi Ming-ying) who lived in the same building where he was residing in downtown Taichung.
Woods said romance soon bloomed and he gave her the nickname “Kiko,” while she reciprocated by affectionately calling him “Mr Woods.”
He wanted her to live in the US with him at the end of his tour in 1967, but she could not do so because of government bureaucracy.
Before he left for the US, he learned that Kiko was pregnant and he promised to find a way to bring her to the US and provide support in the meantime.
His last memories of Kiko were a goodbye hug and kiss at the airport and her nonstop waving as his military plane took off.
Back in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Woods received his first letter from Kiko and he responded immediately, telling her he hoped they would be reunited soon.
In 1968, Woods’ mother intercepted a letter from Kiko announcing the birth of their son.
Woods’ mother promptly destroyed the letter, including the return address, and refused to reveal the child’s name, which made it almost impossible for Woods to directly contact Kiko or find his son.
In the following years, Woods said, he placed many advertisements in Taichung newspapers, trying to locate Kiko and his son, but to no avail.
Having received no response to his advertisements or any further correspondence from Kiko, Woods decided to move on and later married an American woman.
After nearly 50 years, he one day told the story to his daughter Leah and her siblings, and asked for their help to find Kiko and his son.
“I want to apologize to Kiko from the bottom of my heart and to make it known to her that I never forgot about our son... and that I have never forgotten about her,” Woods said, when asked what he would say to Kiko if he found her.
A Web page — www.facebook.com/mytaiwanson — has been set up to coordinate the search, and people with information about Kiko or her son are asked to directly contact Boston Paul or Shaun Bettinson through the site.
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