Body of Valley Woman Arrives From Japan

The body of a young Van Nuys woman killed in the Kobe earthquake arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday morning, to the relief of her parents, who had struggled last week to retrieve the remains from the disorder of the quake-stricken area of Japan.

Northwest Airlines transported the body of Voni Wong at no charge, a break for her family, which had to pay $12,000 to get the remains through the Japanese bureaucracy. After clearing customs at the airport, the body was taken to Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, where it will be buried.

“I’m putting out 30 years of work’s savings to do this,” said Henry Wong, 64, a retired aerospace engineer who still faces the expense of his daughter’s funeral. “I hope I was doing the right thing.”

The Wongs, devout Baptists, had feared their daughter would be cremated, as is Japanese custom, in the aftermath of the devastating quake, which left more than 5,000 people dead.

Voni Wong, 24, went to Japan as an English teacher in January, 1994. She was killed when the ceiling in the house where she was staying collapsed on her bed as the 6.8 magnitude quake rocked southwestern Japan early last Tuesday.

With the assistance of friends in Japan, the Wongs were able to get Voni’s body to Stevenson Mortuary near Osaka, one of the few mortuaries in Japan. One of those friends, John Bury, accompanied the casket on Northwest Flight 26, which landed in Los Angeles a little before 9:30 a.m.

Henry Wong said he was grateful he had friends in Japan who helped retrieve his daughter’s remains. “I think about all those others over there,” he said, “whose parents aren’t with them, and who didn’t have friends to help.”

The Wongs had to borrow from relatives to pay the $12,000, and a trust fund has been set up for the family under the auspices of an attorney. Shepherd of the Hills church in Porter Ranch, the Wongs’ church, has also started a fund for the family.

Burial will be at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Friday morning, with a service at Shepherd of the Hills at 3 p.m.

“We’re going to have a wonderful service on Friday,” Henry Wong said. “Once I found out that she’s still in beautiful condition, I decided we should open it up to the public. We want the whole world to see that Voni’s beautiful.”