BLACKMAIL IN JAPAN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3766, 8 June 1936, Page 3

BLACKMAIL IN JAPAN

An extraordinary case of blackmail, characterised by two distinctively Japanese features, reverence for the portraits of the Imperial family and desire to buy the liberation of a girl in the licensed quarters, has just been brought to light after the whole police force of Fukushima Prefecture had been mobilised to solve it.

There is no more cherished possession of every Japanese school than the photographs of the Emperor and members of his family. There have been cases where schoolmasters have lost their lives in saving these photographs during fires. An unemployed young man named Masao Idogawa conceived the idea of blackmailing the headmaster of the Niiyama primary school in Fukushima, Prefecture by stealing these 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 have 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 twothirds of this, or 800 yen, 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 buried 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. His motive, he stated, was to purchase the freedom of an 18-year-old girl whom he had met in the licensed quarters and to run away with her.