Propaganda story about a Japanese couple in Seoul adopting a poor Korean orphan boy who grows up to become a restaurant owner in Japan with Japanese wife and mixed children, tearfully reuniting with his adoptive parents and vowing to "fulfill our duties as Imperial subjects on the home front" (1943)

This is my translation and transcription of a news article from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the government of Japan-colonized Korea. It has never been republished or translated before, to the best of my knowledge. Ever since someone dumped these old newspaper issues onto the Internet Archive last October, I have been slowly translating and posting select articles at various subreddits to share my findings with the wider community.

This article is meant to be a feel-good story about a Japanese flower shop owner in central Seoul who 'adopts' an unemployed 18-year-old Korean orphan to live with him for four years, employing him at his store. Afterwards, the Korean orphan moves to Japan and eventually settles in Okayama to start his own upscale Japanese restaurant, marries a local Japanese woman, and has three daughters. He later has a tearful reunion with his adoptive Japanese parents when he returns to Seoul to set up a family register for his daughter. His adoptive Japanese parents reciprocate by visiting their adoptive son's family in Okayama.

Unlike the other 'model Korean families' featured in other propaganda articles, which praise Korean families for speaking only Japanese at home and identifying themselves as Imperial Japanese, this featured family stood out from the others because it was an ethnically mixed family, where the husband was ethnic Korean and the wife was ethnic Japanese. The ethnically mixed daughter had to set up her family register in Korea, because under the Japanese koseki (family registration) system, every citizen had to register at their father's family domicile.

(Translation)

Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo) November 13, 1943

An angel without a home moves up in society with warm humanity

A flower of Japanese-Korean Unification blossoms at a crossroads

Fourteen years have passed since a Korean boy with no relatives was rescued, and now he has grown up and established his own respectable family in mainland Japan. After managing to reunite with his former master through chance circumstances, his former master visited him, traveling a long distance to encourage him, and they vowed to each other, "Let us both fulfill our duties as Imperial subjects on the home front". The following is a beautiful story of Japanese-Korean Unification.

Mr. Shōichi Yoshida (32) and his Japanese wife Atsue (27). To the left of Mr. Yoshida is his eldest daughter Masako (8). Atsue is carrying their youngest daughter, and to her right is their middle daughter. Top right insert is Mr. Yoshida's adoptive Japanese father, Mr. Einosuke Furusawa (59)

The subject of this story is Mr. Einosuke Furusawa (59), owner of Musumeya Flower Arrangement Shop, located at 2-2 Honmachi Avenue in central Seoul, whose innate chivalrous spirit led him to save a Korean boy who was struggling on the roadside 14 years ago. The boy who worked for him for four years and then went to Japan is Mr. Shōichi Yoshida (32), who is now involved in running all aspects of a restaurant called "White Fox" at 75 Nishi-Nakasange, Okayama City. He and his wife Atsue (27), whom he married in mainland Japan, have three daughters, including their eldest daughter Masako (8), and are now living happily ever after. With the help of Judge Shirakawa at the Seoul Oversight Court, they set up a family register for his eldest daughter to complete her school enrollment paperwork, and it was then that the story of his former master Mr. Furusawa's chivalry and deep compassion came to light. Here we look back at their story.

In the early spring of 1928, Mr. Furusawa took in and cared for a poor orphan boy who was wandering around the Meiji-machi neighborhood every day. He got along unusually well with customers, beloved by everyone who came and went, and he spent four years at Mr. Furusawa's home. This boy was Shōichi, who had long wanted to work in mainland Japan. He subsequently moved there, and after ten years of hard work in the Osaka and Okayama areas, he became so successful that he opened his own high-class kappō Japanese restaurant.

He married a mainland Japanese woman and had three daughters, but when his eldest daughter entered school, he was troubled by the issue of her family registration. This spring, Shōichi came to Seoul and visited the family of his former masters, Mr. and Mrs. Furusawa. When he met Mrs. Jitsuno Furusawa (52) at the storefront, he greeted her saying "Mother, you are just as healthy as you were in the past". She was stunned by the suddenness of his greeting, but when she recognized Shōichi's appearance, noticing how he had moved up in society, she said with tears in her eyes, "Well, you've grown up so fine..." Mr. and Mrs. Furusawa were as happy as if they were welcoming their own child. With the help of Mr. and Mrs. Furusawa, his daughter with no family register was granted the privilege of creating a family register, which is considered a groundbreaking system on the Korean peninsula along with the Sōshi-Kaimei system under which Koreans adopt Japanese names. Then they went home in high spirits.

Mr. Furusawa visited Okayama City on November 8th, and spent the night with Mr. Yoshida and his family, parting with a vow to "make sure to protect each other on the home front as a national people at war". Judge Shirakawa, who worked hard to create the family register, praised Mr. Furusawa's chivalry. [Photo: Mr. Furusawa with Mr. Yoshida and his family]

Source: https://www.archive.org/details/kjnp-1943-11-13

(End of Translation)

Unfortunately, I could not find any trace of Mr. Yoshida's "White Fox" restaurant anywhere in Japan today. However, I looked up Mr. Furusawa's old store location in Seoul on a 1933 map and on Google Maps in an area just to the west of Myeongdong Cathedral, and it is still a lively, busy apparel retail district, just as it was in the colonial era. The local Russian Tatar community also likely had its clothing businesses in this area.

Mr. Furusawa's flower arrangement shop, Musumeya, in 1933 Seoul.

The former location of Mr. Furusawa's store in 2022 Seoul today (Google Maps).

Link to 1933 Map of Seoul: https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/ta395c/seoul_1933_versus_seoul_2022_map_comparisons/

(Transcription)

京城日報　1943年11月13日

家なき天使が温かい人情で出世

巷に咲いた内鮮一体の華

身寄りなき半島少年を救って十四年。偶然の機会に再会した元の主人が今は内地にあって立派に一家をなした当人を遥々訪れて激励し、『皇国臣民としてお互いに銃後の務めを果たしましょう』と互いに誓い合った内鮮一体の美談がある。

話題の主は府内中枢本町通り二ノ二、むすめや造花店主人古沢栄之助氏（五九）がその人で、生来の義侠心から十四年前路傍に行悩む半島少年を救った。四年間同氏の下で実直に働いて内地に渡った当時の少年は現在岡山市西中山下七五に料理店『白狐』を手広く経営する吉田正一さん（三二）である。今では内地で貰った妻女厚枝さん（二七）との間に長女正子さん（八つ）ほか二女をもうけ、幸福な日を送っているが、長女の入学手続きのため本籍地の戸籍必要から京城覆審法院白川判事に依頼して戸籍を設定し、ここに旧主人古沢氏の義侠と厚い人情美談が判明したもの、話は遡る．．．

昭和三年の春浅き頃、毎日のように明治町附近を彷う哀れな孤児の少年を古沢氏は引き取って面倒をみた。珍しく客当たりのいい子で出入りの誰彼に可愛がられて、四年間を同家に過ごした。この少年が現在の正一氏でかねての希望からその後内地に渡り、大阪、岡山方面で刻苦精励の甲斐あって十余年後には独立して割烹店を開く程の成功を遂げた。

内地人の妻女を娶り三女をもうけたが、長女の入学に当ってハタと困ったのは戸籍の問題であった。今春来城した正一さんは旧主古沢氏の一家を訪れた。店頭にいた古沢氏婦人ジツノさん（五二）に会って『おっかさん、昔通りにお元気ですね』と突然の挨拶に呆然とした夫人もやがて正一氏の出世姿と判ると『まあ、お前さんは随分立派になって．．．』と後は互いに涙にくれた。わが児を迎えるような喜びの古沢氏夫妻の斡旋で半島の画期的制度たる創氏と共に無籍者の戸籍創設の恩典に浴し晴れやかに帰郷した。

古沢氏は、さる八日岡山市を訪れ、吉田氏の一家と共に一夜を語り明し、『決戦下の国民として銃後を互いにしっかりと護り抜こう』と誓って別れた。戸籍創設に尽力した白川判事も古沢氏の義侠心を賛賞している。【写真＝古沢氏と吉田さん一家】