Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman born before the outbreak of World War I and the sinking of the Titanic and thought to be the oldest person in the world, has died at a nursing home in Ashiya, Japan. She was 116 years old.
In a statement released Saturday, Mayor Ashiya announced that Mr. Itooka passed away last Sunday. Although the cause of death was not disclosed, local media reports said she died peacefully of complications due to old age.
Mayor Ryosuke Takashima said, “I would like to express my deepest condolences.” “MS. Mr. Itooka gave us great courage and hope throughout his long life. I would like to once again express our gratitude.”
Mr. Itooka Recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest living person In September, after the death of Spain’s María Blañas Morera at the age of 117.
Birth of Mr. Itooka Tomiko Yano Born May 23, 1908, he was one of three children in a family that owned a clothing store in Osaka. At that time, her country was a newly emerging imperial power that had just defeated Tsarist Russia in a war and was embarking on an expansion into mainland Asia.
The year she was born, Japan signed an agreement with President Theodore Roosevelt’s Secretary of State to avoid conflict with the United States in exchange for Washington’s recognition of Japan’s annexation of the Korean Peninsula. Throughout her life, she watched her country rise as a colonial empire in Asia, suffer a bitter defeat in 1945, and then rise again as an industrial giant and a peaceful democracy.
Raised in pre-war Japan, she played volleyball in high school before marrying Kenji Itooka, a textile company owner, with whom she had two daughters and two sons. During World War II, she remained in Japan to run a business while her husband went to Korea, then a Japanese colony, to oversee a factory.
“During this time, she single-handedly ran the Japanese office and raised her children.” According to the Gerontology Research Groupwhich maintains a database of the world’s oldest people.
In 1979, her husband passed away after 51 years of marriage. Mr. Itooka then moved to Ashiya City on the outskirts of Osaka and continued to be an avid hiker into his 80s. Even now, at the age of 100, he still climbs the stone steps of the local shrine without a cane.
When asked by local news media once about her secret to longevity, she reportedly credited eating bananas and drinking Calpis, a Japanese milk drink. Mr. Itooka has one daughter, one son, and an unknown number of five grandchildren.
Miharu Nishiyama and Hisako Ueno Contributed to the report.
