Devoted daughter, sister, wife, mother

Yoko Miyahira Bostwick, a devoted daughter, sister, wife and mother of two children, died peacefully at her Claremont home on March 3 from complications of breast cancer. She was 73.

Yoko was born on November 2, 1951 to Dentoku and Mitsu Miyahira in the U.S. Trust Territory of Okinawa, now a prefecture of Japan. She was the sixth of seven surviving Miyahira children. She attended Okinawa public schools and graduated from Okinawa Business High School in 1969. After high school she studied English at the Nago English School from which she graduated after completing a two year program. She went on to find employment in the fields of travel and public records translation.

She was introduced to her husband Captain Jim Bostwick in 1975 while working at a privately operated translation office in Kin Village across the road from the gate to Marine Corps Base Camp Hansen where he was stationed. After a year and a half courtship, they were wed in the chapel at the Marine Corps Base, Camp Zukeran on December 11, 1976. A Marine chaplain and the Japanese pastor of a local Christian Church officiated over ceremonies attended by her five brothers, sister, father and extended family.

In 1977 she joined her husband in San Diego after he was discharged from the Marines. They moved to Pomona in 1978, where he established a law practice. During her working years, she held positions as her husband’s secretary and in the travel and tax accounting industries. They moved to Claremont in 1987.

As a devoted mother she raised two children, Matthew, born in 1979, and Jeremiah, born in 1983. As a housewife she was the chief cook, bottle washer and cleaning maid. She participated in her children’s public school events, Cub Scout and Boy Scout activities, Saturday Japanese school, music lessons and Sunday church. She went on several extended vacations to Okinawa with her sons, introducing them to their grandfather, aunt, and uncles and Okinawan language and culture.

In the early 2000s she graduated with a two year AA degree in art from Citrus College. She studied ceramic art under professor Michael Hillman and watercolor painting under professor Chris Van Winkle. She was a member of the Japanese Ceramics Art Guild, and her works were shown for many years at the Japanese Cultural Arts Center in Los Angeles during Nisei week.  Her pieces were also displayed at the Ink and Clay exhibition at Cal Poly, Pomona. In addition to ceramics and painting, her hobbies included gardening. She propagated many plants, especially cactus and succulent varieties, in her own hand thrown and hand built pots and displayed them around her home and garden.

She is survived in Okinawa by brothers, Denie, Katsunori and Shigeru; and sister, Rumi; and in the U.S. by her husband Jim; her sons Matthew and Jeremiah; her daughter-in-law Tiffany and by her grandson Matthew Miyahira Bostwick, II.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, April 12 at The Vine Church, 2801 North Towne Ave., Pomona, CA 91767. A luncheon will follow the service. All attendees are welcome.