BLACKMAIL IN JAPAN

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 199, 20 May 1936, Page 17

BLACKMAIL IN JAPAN

Picture Held for Ransom An extraordinary case of blackmail, characterised by two distinctively Japanese features, reverence for the portraits of the Imperial family aud desire to buy the liberation of a girl in the licensed quarters, has just been brought to light after (Ik whole police force of Fukushima Prefecture had been mobilised to solve it. There is no more cherished possession of every Japanese school than till) photographs of the Emperor and members of bis family. There have been cases when schoolmasters have lost their lives in saving these photographs during fires. An unemployed young man ntinicd Masao Idogawa conceived the idea of blackmailing the headmaster of the Niiyama primary school in Fukushima Prefecture by stealing those precious pictures. One day the headmaster. Mr. Kesaji Tomizuka. was surprised and horrified on receiving an unsigned letter which began: “I mention with reverence that I hove in my possession the Imperial photographs of your school, which I stole from the school's shrine. I am in need of funds for the rehabilitation of a new party. You draw, I estimate, a yearly salary of 1200 yen. I demand that you bury two-thirds of this, or 800 yon, at a designated spot for the return of the Imperial photographs.” On finding that the photographs had actually disappeared, the headmaster scraped together a hundred yen and burled it at. the place which had been indicated. The money was taken, but the pictures were not. returned. He then called in the police, and an intensive investigation was started. It was discovered that a locksmith had made a duplicate of the key to the school’s vault, and this led to the arrest of Idogawa, who confessed his offence and revealed that the photographs were concealed in a shed near his house. Ills motive, he stated, was to purchase the freedom o" an eighteeii-year-old girl whom he had met. in the 'licensed quarters and to run away with her,