Hi all!
The assumption that Nambu raised the team is a mix of canon with speculation to fill in the gaps. There really isn't a whole lot to go on, but here's the facts, and a few of the generally accepted assumptions.
With Ken, he was placed in Nambu's care when his father disappeared when Ken was 4 years old (Episode #52). Ken's mother was ill, and passed away when Ken was 11 years old (Episode #92).
The assumption is that Nambu was Ken's primary caregiver between age 4 and 11 because of his mother's illness, and that Nambu took full responsibility for Ken once his mother died, but this is never stated in the series.
With Joe, his parents were killed by a Devil Star on BC Island when Joe was 8 years old (Episode #78, with Joe's age at that time revealed in episode #81). Joe was badly injured in this attack, and the wounded boy was found by Dr. Nambu, who happened to be on the island at that time. To keep him safe, Nambu falsified documents that Joe had died in a hospital, and secretly got him off BC Island (Episode #81).
The assumption is that Nambu then raised Joe from age 8 onward, but this is never stated in the series.
With Jun, she grew up in an orphanage, with no real memory of her parents (Episode #92). When Jun was 8 years old, she went to Mt. Jupiter, where she found Jinpei (Episode #95). When she was 13 years old, she had a boyfriend named Koji Yabane (Episode #56).
The assumption is that the orphanage she was in was the Shirayuki Orphanage, but this is never stated in the series.
How and when she met Dr. Nambu is never revealed in the series.
With Jinpei, when he was approximately 3 years old, he was found by Jun, wandering alone near Mt. Jupiter. His real name and birthplace are unknown, but it was Jun who named him Jinpei. Because of where he was found, it is assumed that he was born near Mt. Jupiter. It is possible that he is the missing son of the assassinated leader of the Jupiter Ninjas, but this is uncertain (Episode #95). Early on, Jinpei believed that he was 18th generation Iga ninja (Episode #1). Jinpei the grew up in the Shirayuki Orphanage (Episode #29).
The assumption is that Jun was in the Shirayuki Orphanage along with Jinpei, due in no small part to the brother-sister relationship between the two, but this is never stated in the series.
How and when he met Dr. Nambu is never revealed in the series.
With Ryu, he is the only member with living immediate family, including his younger brother, Seiji (Episode #26), his father (Episode #26), and his mother (Episode #57).
How and when he met Dr. Nambu is never revealed in the series.
As for other sources and how they influenced fandom, there was a Gatchaman book published in 1978, the Fantastic TV Collection Vol. 3. This book included a chapter that was a roundtable discussion with the members of the Science Ninja Team, where the characters essentially talked about themselves and their lives.
In it, Jun and Jinpei said that Dr. Nambu saw Jinpei at the orphanage, and recognized his natural ninja-like skills. Because of this, he took Jinpei in, and Jun came along as part of a package deal. Jun initially spent time as something of a housekeeper, but soon joined in with Ken, Joe, and Jinpei in their training. As her skills became apparent, she became part of the team.
The discussion also explained that Nambu had come to Ryu's hometown to do ocean research. He rented a boat from Ryu's family, and Ryu took him out to sea. A storm came up suddenly, swamping the boat, and Ryu saved Nambu from drowning. In thanks, Nambu invited Ryu to come back to Utoland with him. Once there, Ryu quickly fell in with the others, who accepted him freely despite his lack of ninja-like abilities.
This material was strictly non-canon, of course, amounting to little more than professionally written fanon. Nice ideas with nothing in the show itself to support them.
These notions would likely have been overlooked by most American fans if it weren't for a rough translation of this book that made the rounds in fan circles in the early 1980s. At that point in time, most American fans had only seen Battle of the Planets, and a few had been fortunate enough to have seen the Gatchaman movie. Back then, there was precious little solid information about Gatchaman available in English, and in our ignorance, we had no way to determine what was accurate to what was presented in the series and what wasn't. So the translation of that book was treated like gold, and every detail within those translations was looked upon as gospel.
Those translations, and those details, were shared among everyone for quite some time, with all of us blithely accepting them as being factual, and helped to form the belief among American fans that Nambu raised most of the Science Ninja Team from childhood. It took years of looking into the series, putting forth an effort to confirm every detail, and a willingness to reject notions you once believed to be true, to finally reach a point where we could tell Gatchaman fact from fantasy. Regardless, every once in a while I still see one or two examples of misinformation from that book turn up.
As for G-Force in BotP, it is not stated that Anderson raised them, only that they have been trained almost since birth in how to use their powers (Attack of the Space Terrapin, Decoys of Doom) and to keep peace in the galaxy (Panic of the Peacock). Who chose them and what this training involved is not revealed. It is also never stated in the series when and how any of the members of G-Force met Anderson. That Anderson raised them is likely a holdover of the belief that Nambu raised the Science Ninja Team. It was quite common in the earliest days of this fandom to use information from Gatchaman as a form of spackle to fill in gaps in Battle of the Planets.
Mark was entrusted to Anderson by his father when he was 4 years old (The Sky Is Falling! Part I), and was close enough to Dr. Harlan to think of him as a father figure (The Space Serpent).
The assumption is that Mark was raised by Anderson since he was 4.
Almost nothing of Jason's past is revealed. At some point in the past, he raced in the Australian 5000 Mile Kangaroo Derby (Race Against Disaster).
Princess lost her mother when she was very young (Peril in the Pyramids). Spent some time studying meditation in the Himalaya (Charioteers of Changu).
Keyop was born in a laboratory, grown from a single embryonic cell (Attack of the Space Terrapin, Peril in the Pyramids). As such, he has no real mother and father (Peril in the Pyramids).
Tiny comes from a small fishing village. He still has friends there, including Captain Jack and his son, Tommy (The Bat-Ray Bombers, Peril of the Preying Mantis). At some point in his life, Tiny spent time in the South Seas (Big Robot Gold Grab).
I hope this helps to clarify things, at least a little.
James
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by tatsunokofan on 23-04-2014 at 00:12.
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Playing darts with the Condor's feather shuriken... 
James!
"The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing." -- Blaise Pascal 
