Kihachiro's grandfather was Nagasaki-ban Junin-gumi kashira, head of an autonomous group of 10 families, and is known for helping a group of Jews who were being persecuted by the Schutzstaffel (SS) to escape to the U.S. on a ship conscripted from Mitsubishi when Matsuo, his grandson was serving as in Special Service Agency in Shanghai on the eve of the Second World War; a story which reminds us of the historical bond between the domain of Omura that produced Christian daimyos and the open and liberal port of Nagasaki.
喜八郎の祖父は長崎番十人組頭をし彼の孫の松雄が第二次世界大戦前夜の上海で特務機関員をしていた時にドイツ軍の親衛隊から迫害されていたユダヤ人の一団を三菱から徴用した船で米国へ逃がしたが、そのことは如何にもキリシタン大名を輩出した大村藩と開明的長崎港の歴史的縁を偲ぶ物語と言えよう。