Yoko Bond
Obituary

Yoko M. Bond passed away peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday, September 24, 2025. A longtime resident of Winnetka, California, she was 93 years old and had been ill for several years.

Yoko was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1932 as Yoko Naramoto. She was adopted by her paternal aunt, Fujie Momotani, and assumed the surname Momotani. By 1936, Yoko and her adoptive aunt relocated to Korea.

A dedicated student, Yoko was selected to attend a prestigious school for education in Koshu, Korea, and quickly rose to third in her class. She was determined to become number one, but the final stages of World War II shattered those dreams in late 1944. Assigned to punishing work details and subsisting on starvation rations, the remaining students were forced to support the war effort.

The end of the war came abruptly. Within months, all Japanese citizens living in Korea were removed from the country with only what they could carry and limited funds. After a harrowing repatriation to Japan, Yoko and her aunt arrived in late 1945 to a nation struggling to recover from the devastation of war.

Yoko eventually graduated from high school and attended Oita University. There she met and married Lawrence J. Bond, a paratrooper assigned to nearby Beppu. Together they had four surviving children. Over the next twenty years, the family moved back and forth between the United States and Japan until Lawrence’s retirement in 1969.

After their divorce in 1972, Yoko returned to college to complete her degree. She majored in mathematics, earned a degree in computer programming, and eventually became a senior programmer for the Celanese Corporation at its Dallas headquarters. Upon retirement, she moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she became an active participant in many senior activities. She won awards for her photography and received accolades for her intricate crochet tatting. She also enjoyed line dancing and Tai Chi, attending nearly every session at the Senior Center in Las Cruces with her friends for many years—until failing health prevented her from living alone.

In 2020, Yoko moved to Winnetka, California, to live with her youngest son as an in-home hospice patient. Although she declined conventional medical treatment, she lived another five years. As in all things, Yoko was quietly determined to do things her way.

She is survived by her four children: Cathy Dunaway, Shirley Bond, Phillip Bond, and W. David Bond. She is also survived by nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

Yoko was a devoted Buddhist and requested to be cremated.