Joan Collette Rauwald was born in 1932 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a child, she lived in
many different places in the United States, including Rapids Parish, Lousiana; Muskogee,
Oklahoma; Paris, Texas; Superior, Wisconsin; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Joan's father, Carl
Joseph Rauwald (1909-1968), was a Major of 734th Field Artillery Battalion and later worked
for the Civilian Transportation Section of General MacArthur's Headquarters in Tokyo. On
January 26, 1947, Joan arrived in Japan with her father, Carl Joseph Rauwald; her mother,
Estelle (nee Campbell) Rauwald (1909-1981); and her two brothers, Jerry and Tom Rauwald. The
family first stayed at the Mt. Fuji View Hotel and then moved into a US Army Home in
Washington Heights, located a few miles south of Tokyo. The Rauwald family was able to
maintain a middle-class lifestyle in Japan and employed Japanese domestic workers as
servants in their home. Joan graduated from Meguro High School, also known as the Tokyo
American School, in 1949. The Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP)'s General Headquarters
(GHQ) Special News Service in Tokyo wrote a piece about Joan that relayed Joan's plan to
work as a stenographer in Japan for a year after graduating high school and then go on to
attend college in the United States. Joan returned to Milwaukee in 1950 and graduated from
St. Mary's School of Nursing in 1953. Joan married Jack Ritonia (1925-2003) in 1955, and
together they had three children. Joan had a long career as a nurse in the Milwaukee area
and was one of the co-founding nurses of the St. Alphonsus Oncology Clinic. Joan died in
Hales Corner, Wisconsin in 2022.
