In this paper, Ohkado Masayuki investigates the past life memories of a Japanese boy who was born in 2000.

Masayuki conducted two interviews on this case, one with the subject, who was 9.5 yrs at the time, and his mother (in June 2010) and one with the subject and his father (in July 2010).

One problem with this study is that at the time of the interview, Tommo no longer had many specific memories of his past life. He did state that he still had a visual image of his British mother (who he wanted to meet) and recalled that he had a dog named John.

Information about previous statements and behaviours came mostly from the parents (and the mother had kept a detailed diary at the time).

Tommos expressions of a prior life:

Here is a summary of a few of the more interesting items recorded during interviews with Tommo and his family:

• At an early age (2 yrs) he was attracted to Roman lettering he saw on TV commercials, and signed his name using them.
• Around this time, he surprised his mother by being able to sing along effortlessly to the English song “Top of the World”
• At 3 yrs he had a conversation with his mother asking to peel garlic. When asked why, he replied that before he came to be called Tomo he “was a child of a restaurant in the UK”.
• He stated that he was born on August 9th and was named “Geiris”.
• He also told his mother that he died after having a high fever.
• Interestingly, the mother decided to buy him some garlic the next day, which he peeled very skilfully. His mother noted that he did this with his left-hand even though he is right-handed.
• Around this time, he also informed his mother that “British Tomo” was taking a yellow and round pill called EMD.
• Later, his mother showed him a map of the UK and Tommo indicated that he lived around Edinburgh.
• His mother recorded in her diary that at the age of 4 yrs, Tomo told her that he had a dog called John. “He had yellow or golden hair with a long nose. His ears were on the upper head. We slept in the same room”.
• He mentioned to his mother that his British mother often said, “I love you.” The author of the paper notes that Japanese mothers rarely say this.
• Tommo would point to his legs and say that he had a lot of hair there, and pointing at a washbasin, repeatedly said “washbasin” in English.
• Also, at the age of 4, Tommo reportedly told his mother: “When I was British Tomo, on February 16th, white liquid came out of my penis for the first time”. “Yellow pee and white juice came out”
• He told his mother that he spent time at “Muginba Paresu” hospital, around 115 kilometers from his house. Room 4 on the 13th floor. His treatment included an unsuccessful operation, after which he developed a fever and died.
• When asked about his death he replied: “I was doing something like riding on a slide or on the escalator of a 25-story building.”
• He alluded to a train accident in the UK, in Southall. “I watched the news on TV. It said ‘Accident! Accident! Two trains collided, and a fire occurred. Eight people died.”

Confirming the memories:

The author of the paper feels that much of the information might be congruent with a life in Edinburgh and well beyond the knowledge of a typical Japanese boy of that age.

Tommo did, in fact, travel to Edinburgh in 2008 (with his father) in an unsuccessful attempt to search for his English mother.

An internet search by the author based on the subject’s statements was also unable to identify a person who matched British Tommo (he had provided specific dates of both his birth and death).

Also, there were no 13-story residential buildings in Edinburgh before 2000.

Even though there was no verification of any of these memories, it remains intriguing that a very young Japanese boy with presumably little knowledge of the west would spontaneously make such claims.

In conclusion, the author states:

This article reports a case of a Japanese child who claims to remember his past life. Despite the subject’s detailed statements concerning his past life, the search for his past-life personality has not been successful and the case is “unsolved.” However, some of the highly specific information the subject gave and the unusual behavior the subject showed are strongly indicative of the paranormal nature of the present case. The overall pattern of the development of the case shows that CORTs (Cases of the Reincarnation Type) can be observed in modern Japan.

Original paper: A Case of a Japanese Child with Past-Life Memories.

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Photo by Fernañdo Prado