Family hopes to solve mystery behind war-era samurai sword

A family’s quest to solve a Second World War mystery of why a Japanese officer presented a samurai word to an Irish doctor after a nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki could be solved in the next few days.

A daughter of the late Dr Aidan MacCarthy from Castletownbere, Co Cork, is flying to Japan today in an effort to trace the family of 2nd Lieutenant Isao Kusuno.

Nicola MacCarthy is being accompanied by documentary maker Bob Jackson on the trip and they have already alerted the Japanese media in the hope they can track Kusuno’s relatives.