The Postcard
A carte postale that was printed in Japan. It was posted in Hampstead, London N.W.3 using a one penny stamp on Friday the 20th. August 1926.
The card was sent to:
Mrs. Jones,
14, Woodlands Road,
Middlesborough,
Yorks.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Hampstead Aug. 20.
I have been meaning to write
several times but the last few
weeks have been very full.
I hope you are all well.
I am sailing tomorrow in the
Berengaria and going via
Canada.
If your son is ever in Japan I
should be so pleased to see
him, but I am off the beaten
tracks.
Yours in haste,
F. M. H."
How Japan Took Control of Korea
Erin Blakemore has written the following for history.com in 2018, and updated it in 2023:
In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan after years of war, intimidation and political machinations; the country would be considered a part of Japan until 1945. In order to establish control over its new protectorate, the Empire of Japan waged an all-out war on Korean culture.
Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean, and emphasized manual labor and loyalty to the Emperor. Public places adopted Japanese, too, and an edict to make films in Japanese soon followed.
Topographical and other postcards of Korea were published with descriptions in Japanese text.
It also became a crime to teach history from non-approved texts, and authorities burned over 200,000 Korean historical documents, essentially wiping out the historical memory of Korea.
During the occupation, Japan took over Korea’s labor and land. Nearly 100,000 Japanese families settled in Korea with the land they had been given; they chopped down trees by the million and planted non-native species, transforming a familiar landscape into something many Koreans didn’t recognize.
Nearly 725,000 Korean workers were made to work in Japan and its other colonies, and as World War II loomed, Japan forced hundreds of thousands of Korean women into life as “comfort women”—sexual slaves who served in military brothels.
Korea’s people weren’t the only thing that was plundered during Japan’s colonization—its cultural symbols were considered fair game, too. One of the most powerful symbols of Korean sovereignty and independence was its royal palace, Gyeongbokgung, which was built in Seoul in 1395 by the mighty Joseon dynasty.
Soon after assuming power, the Japanese colonial government tore down over a third of the complex’s historic buildings, and the remaining structures were turned into tourist attractions for Japanese visitors.
As historian Heejung Kang notes, the imperial government also attempted to preserve treasures of Korean art history and culture—but then used them to uphold imperial Japan’s image of itself as a civilizing and modern force.
This view of Korea as backward and primitive compared to Japan made it into textbooks, museums and even Koreans’ own perceptions of themselves.
The occupation government also worked to assimilate Koreans with the help of language, religion and education. Shinto shrines originally intended for Japanese families became places of forced worship.
Historian Donald N. Clark explains:
"The colonial government made Koreans
worship the gods of imperial Japan,
including dead emperors and the spirits
of war heroes who had helped them
conquer Korea earlier in the century.”
This forced worship was viewed as an act of cultural genocide by many Koreans, but for the colonists, it was seen as evidence that Koreans and Japanese were a single, unified people.
Though some families got around the Shinto edict by simply visiting the shrines and not praying there, others grudgingly adopted the new religious practices out of fear.
By the end of its occupation of Korea, Japan had even waged war on people’s family names. At first, the colonial government made it illegal for people to adopt Japanese-style names, ostensibly to prevent confusion in family registries.
But in 1939, the government made changing names an official policy. Under the law, Korean families were “graciously allowed” to choose Japanese surnames.
At least 84 percent of all Koreans took on the names since people who lacked Japanese names were not recognized by the colonial bureaucracy, and were shut out of everything from mail delivery to ration cards. Historian Hildi Kang writes:
“The whole point was for the government
to be able to say that the people had
changed their names ‘voluntarily.’”
The Plundering of Korea by Japan
(a) Historic Korean Artifacts
Koreans accuse the Japanese of plundering hundreds of thousands of ancient Korean artifacts, mostly during their 36-year occupation of the peninsula. Most Japanese consider the issue a dead one, resolved by the 1965 Japan-Korea Treaty, which led to the return of some 1,400 items.
However the treaty was not definitive, as it neglected artifacts in Japanese private collections, as well as those originating in North Korea.
The size of the haul is astounding. Eighty percent of all Korean Buddhist paintings are believed to be in Japan. And, says Seoul art historian Kwon Cheeyun:
"35,000 Korean art objects and
30,000 rare books have been
confirmed to be there, too."
However that is only the tip of the iceberg: vastly more is believed to be hidden away in private collections.
Determining legal ownership is far more difficult than with the art looted by the Nazis. Toshiyuki Kono, a law professor at Kyushu University. states:
"It's almost impossible to trace the
provenance of centuries-old artifacts."
Besides, the Japanese annexation was internationally recognized in 1910, meaning that relocating Korean artifacts within "Japanese territory" was lawful at the time.
To Korea's annoyance, Japan holds many items of particular value. More than 1,000 bronze, gold and celadon pieces owned by the late businessman Takenosuke Ogura now make up the core of the Tokyo National Museum's Korean section.
A lot of precious Korean artifacts are now owned by private Japanese citizens or organizations, which means that the Japanese government can’t just acquire them and hand them back to Korea. So, unless the Korean government offers to actually spend millions of dollars to buy back the artifacts, it is unlikely they will ever be returned.
As well as removing cultural artifacts to Japan, the Japanese also burned countless Korean government buildings and palaces.
(b) Natural Resources
The Japanese also removed vast amounts of Korea's natural resources, including lumber, rice, coal, iron ore and many other minerals.
The land itself was also appropriated by the Japanese; by 1910 an estimated 8% of all arable land in Korea had come under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily, and by 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership had grown to 53%.
Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations. Many former Korean landowners became tenant farmers, having lost their entitlements almost overnight because they could not pay for the land reclamation and irrigation improvements forced upon them. As often occurred in Japan itself, tenants had to pay over half their crop in rent.
Ruth Fischer
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 20th. August 1926, the Communist Party of Germany excluded Ruth Fischer, Arkadi Maslow, and three other members for asserting that the Soviet Union was no longer a true Communist state.
Charles Barr
The day also marked the death by execution of Charles Barr.
Barr, who was born in 1903, was known as The Petting Party Bandit. He was an American serial killer who attacked couples at lovers' lanes in Memphis from January to May 1923, killing three and wounding one.
For his crimes, he was convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently executed at the Tennessee State Prison in 1926.
-- Charles Barr - The Early Years
Little is known about Barr's early life. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the only son of a Baptist minister. As an adult, he married a woman named Luada, and the couple lived happily in the city, with Charles working as a chauffeur and house servant for the Van Fossan family, where he was treated decently and regarded as an honest worker.
However, Barr wished for a more lavish lifestyle, believing the quickest way to do so was to turn to robberies.
-- The Murders
(a) Duncan Waller and Ruth Tucker
On the 27th. January 1923, Barr borrowed a car from a friend and drove to an isolated road near Memphis, which was known as a local lovers' lane. There, he came across 19-year-old salesman Duncan Waller from Mayfield, Kentucky and his mistress, Ruth McElwaine Tucker of Bowling Green.
Barr parked the car near them and approached them on foot. Upon reaching their automobile, he pulled out a .25 caliber pistol and shot Waller, killing him instantly. Terrified, Ruth Tucker leaped out of the car and sprinted towards a nearby field, but Barr caught up with her, raped her and then shot her as well.
After killing her, he stole the woman's jewelry and valuables before returning to the car and doing the same to Waller. He then fled the area.
The bodies were later discovered by a milkman doing his daily routine. However despite the police's and local citizens' detective agencies attempts to solve the case, nobody was arrested for the crime at the time.
(b) W. Obe Spencer and Laura Johnson
Four months later, on the 29th. May 1923, Barr again borrowed the car and went to the same spot, where he found 27-year-old grocery store executive W. Obe Spencer and his date, schoolteacher Laura Wheaton Johnson, who were talking to one another in the car.
Barr again stealthily approached them, but was seen by Laura Johnson, who began screaming. The assailant then immediately shot and killed Spencer, before proceeding to also shoot Johnson, who survived.
Seeing that she was still alive, he took her hostage and forced her to give up her jewellery, planning to kill her in another secluded area.
However, Johnson leapt out of the moving car and ran to the nearest house, explaining to the homeowner what had just happened. Alarmed, he brought her to the police station, where she reiterated what had happened, but was unable to provide an accurate description of the attacker.
-- The Arrest of Charles Barr
While no further known murders were committed by the offender, by then dubbed "The Petting Party Bandit", the cases caused a great stir in contemporary Memphis.
Knowing that the offender had used a .25 caliber pistol in both attacks and the fact that he had stolen valuables from his victims, the detectives working on the case focused on tracking down the items.
Nothing substantial emerged until July 1924, when Det. Sgt. John Long noticed that a local pawnbroker was selling a watch similar to the one lifted from Ruth Tucker's body.
After examining the watch and questioning the pawnbroker, authorities learned that it had been pawned by Luoda Barr, the wife of a chauffeur currently employed by prominent Memphis politician E. H. Crump.
In the span of days, authorities interrogated both her and Charles, in addition to searching their property, succeeding in finding the murder weapon in the trunk of Barr's car.
Faced with mounting evidence, Barr admitted his guilt to the detectives, and in a written letter stated that he was solely responsible for all three slayings.
-- The Trial of Charles Barr
The prosecutors announced that they would seek a death sentence for Barr, who refused to hire an attorney. As a result, public defenders Grover McCormick and his assistant Floyd Creasy were hired to represent him.
While the trial was going on, it was suggested by some media outlets that Barr might have been responsible for two similar attacks that had occurred in the Memphis area:
-- The 27th. October 1922, attack on policeman
Aubrey Thomas and his date Zelda Foster, in
which the former was killed and the latter survived.
-- The January 1923 attack on DeWitt Sink and
his fiancée Thelma Cunningham, in which
Cunningham was severely wounded and had
to be treated in hospital for several weeks.
However, Barr himself denied culpability in these crimes, and no evidence proved his guilt in either case.
In relation to the cases he was charged with, Laura Johnson, who was brought in to testify on behalf of the prosecution, positively identified a wristwatch found in the Barr household as the one her attacker had looted off Spencer's corpse.
Barr was only tried for killing Spencer. The trial was adjourned on the 23rd. October, due to the fact that Justice J. Edd Richards fell ill.
As it resumed, the defense contended that Barr's confession should not be considered credible, as it was allegedly obtained under duress, a claim denied by the police department.
On the 28th. October, Barr was found guilty of first degree murder, and on the 6th. November, he was sentenced to death.
He subsequently appealed his sentence to the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of the United States and to then-Governor Austin Peay to commute his sentence, all of which were rejected.
-- The Execution of Charles Barr
As a result, on the 20th. August 1926, Barr was executed by electric chair at the Tennessee State Prison in Nashville. He was aged 22/23 at the time of his death. Barr was the 24th. convict to have been executed in this manner since the state transitioned from the previous method of hanging.
