The French-made NC-27 tanks, known in Japan as Renault Type B tanks, were imported by the Imperial Japanese Army but were quickly replaced by domestically produced Type 89 tanks and withdrawn from the front lines for various reasons.

Both nations had a strong militarism.

The question is which country had stronger militaristic sentiments?

Was it Germany or Japan?

This is the second part of the news coverage about a 22-member Italian Fascist delegation which visited Korea in 1938 from the afternoon of April 23 until the evening of April 24. They had just spent roughly 40 days traveling throughout Japan proper before continuing through colonial Korea.

Despite spending only about 36 hours in Korea, the delegation received extraordinarily lavish newspaper coverage, with pages upon pages devoted to virtually every aspect of the visit. The reporting ranges far beyond official speeches and diplomatic ceremonies. It documents exchanges involving sports, cinema, food, music, Catholicism, martial arts, military affairs, and youth organizations. There were also numerous encounters with schoolchildren and ordinary people.

The delegation was headed by Marquis Giacomo Paulucci di Calboli Barone, an Italian diplomat whom Mussolini had appointed president of the Istituto Luce, the state-controlled film and newsreel organization that played a major role in Fascist propaganda. In this photograph from the trip, Paulucci appears relaxed and smiling as he holds up his right arm in a Fascist salute. To Paulucci's right is Director of Political Affairs Ōno smiling as he holds his hat. The photo shows Paulucci's signature, which is a stylized rendering of "Paulucci di Calboli".

In this installment, we get to accompany Korean reporter Yi Won-yeong aboard the delegation’s special train as it travels north toward Seoul. His account is unusually lively and gives us a much more personal view of the visitors than the official ceremonies do. He jokes with the delegates, asks them about Korea and Japan, and records their reactions to the countryside, schoolchildren greeting the train, Korean grave mounds (bongbun, 봉분), and even the sea bream they are about to eat for lunch.

Fortunately for the delegation, there was at least one highly accomplished Japanese speaker among them: Pietro Silvio Rivetta (1886–1952), better known by his pen name Toddi. Rivetta was a polyglot writer reputed to know numerous languages, and the newspaper treats him as someone already familiar to Japanese readers. He appears to have played an important role as an interpreter and linguistic intermediary during the trip.

We also meet Chef Iwabuchi of the Chōsen Hotel, who was responsible for preparing food for the delegation. His interview offers an amusing glimpse behind the scenes of official hospitality. He claims that Italians generally prefer lighter cooking and are not especially fond of pork or eggs, and explains that because the visitors were being subjected to one elaborate banquet after another, he wanted to serve something simpler, essentially the culinary equivalent of giving an exhausted Japanese diner ochazuke and pickles after too many formal meals.

Printed alongside the delegation coverage is an article about Yi Un and Yi Bangja of the former Korean royal house visiting wounded and sick soldiers at Yongsan Army Hospital. At first this may seem unrelated, but the placement becomes more interesting later, when the royal couple themselves encounter the Italian delegation at an official banquet. Placing their activities alongside the visit of a major foreign Fascist delegation may have helped present them as lending legitimacy to Imperial Japan's Fascist foreign relations, while also directing some of the extraordinary attention surrounding the Italian visitors toward the Korean royal household.

[Translation]

Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo), April 24, 1938

Full Coverage of Stories of Goodwill
The Fascist Train Charges Ahead
A “Black Spring” on a Korean Peninsula Roaring with Cheers

[Special dispatch by correspondent Yi Won-yeong (이원영, 李元栄) aboard the Italian Delegation’s special train]

The special train carrying Marquis Paulucci and his party races northward, ever northward, cutting through the morning mist.

Out of consideration for the exhaustion of their long journey, the Government-General had arranged that, for the first two or three hours after departure, we should refrain as much as possible from intruding upon the delegation’s compartments. Yet beginning with Marquis Paulucci himself, not one of them shows any intention of resting.

Instead, they press their eyes to the windows and repeatedly exclaim:

“Bello, bello!” — “Beautiful, beautiful!”

The mist clears. Brilliant morning sunlight pours down upon fields of green wheat.

“Bello!”

Professor Antonio Casulli of the University of Rome suddenly lets out such a loud cry that this reporter is startled.

“Is the scenery outside really that beautiful?” I ask.

As though overcome with emotion, he throws both arms dramatically wide.

“It is exactly like my homeland! It is the very landscape of Sardinia. Look! The mountains, those houses, those people, their customs. I like it, I like it! What is this place called?”

“Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province.”

“Ah, Seidō.”

Repeating the name to himself, he carefully writes it down in his notebook.

Professor Casulli catches hold of me and seems unwilling to let me go, but Dr. Paolo Bompard, whose face bears a remarkable resemblance to Mussolini’s, forcibly pulls me over to his seat.

Pointing toward the many earthen mounds scattered across the hills, the doctor says:

“Those are graves, are they not?”

“How did you know?”

“This is my first time in Japan, but I have been to China many times.”

“You look very much like Prime Minister Mussolini,” I say jokingly.

“Only in the face. As for the brains, I have a long way to go,” he replies with a joke of his own.

“Go on, guess how old I am.”

Trying to joke in return, I deliberately shave down the figure:

“Thirty-five or thirty-six?”

“Do not give me one of those Chinese-style answers. Add another twenty years!”

He laughs and shrugs his shoulders.

Just then we pass Samseong Station). Elementary-school pupils stand neatly arranged in a single file. At their teacher’s command, they simultaneously raise Hinomaru flags and shout “Banzai!”

“What splendid discipline!”

“Wonderful! Banzai!”

Such cries can be heard here and there throughout the train.

At this moment Marquis Paulucci appears in the observation car. Until then he had been shut away in his compartment, gazing out at the now brilliantly clear skies over the Korean peninsula while drafting the speech he is to deliver in Seoul.

When I greet him with “Welcome,” he firmly grasps my hand in his enormous hand.

His palm is damp with perspiration, and it feels almost as though the Marquis’s southern warmth and passion are flowing directly into my own hand.

Looking at the orchids and sea bream presented to the delegation at Busan and Miryang, he smiles broadly.

“We are going to eat that sea bream for lunch. I expect it will be delicious.”

Then he says:

“I offer my heartfelt respect to Governor-General Minami and Commander Koiso. I had already acquired considerable knowledge of Korea from news photographs and the like, but I am deeply moved to see that Japan and Korea have become so completely fused into one. The efforts of Their Excellencies have been magnificent.”

As though to embody the word “wonderful,” the Marquis’s great eyes shine brilliantly.

“Thank you very much,” I reply, instinctively bowing my head.

“What about having Japan and Italy cooperate to produce a film on an even grander scale than the Italian national-policy film Scipione?”

“That would be splendid. But that is such a large question that it would require considerable study. I do think an exchange of actors between our two countries is necessary, and I would like to see it realized.”

“Korea is an extraordinarily beautiful place,” he says.

As he speaks, the train glides into Daegu Station, which is buried beneath Japanese and Italian flags.

A storm of “Banzai!”

Marquis Paulucci steps down onto the platform. He receives bouquets from Tokiko Fukunaka, 18, of Daegu Girls’ High School, dressed in a long-sleeved kimono, and An Yun-ju (안윤주, 安潤珠), 17, of North Gyeongsang Girls’ High School, dressed in Korean clothing.

Then, facing the cheering crowd, he raises his right hand in the Fascist manner and, with remarkably accurate Japanese pronunciation, cries:

“Banzai to the citizens of Daegu!”

The excited crowd replies with another storm of banzais.

Wiping the perspiration from his forehead as he climbs back into the observation car, the Marquis murmurs to the person beside him:

“I can only say how deeply moved I am by the welcome from officials and people all along the route.”

The train flies like an arrow past station after station, each buried beneath Hinomaru flags and cries of “Banzai!”

“What is this station called?”

The question is asked in Japanese.

I turn around and see the monocled Count Rivetta smiling at me.

“You are Count Rivetta, are you not?” I say with a bow.

With exaggerated laughter he replies:

“Why, there is no one who does not know Rivetta—just like Momotarō!”

Beside him sits Colonel Camillo Canali, relaxed and composed. He is renowned as coming from an entire family of Japanophiles, his father and elder brother having been connected with consular service in Japan.

After introductions, I ask:

“What impression did you receive from seeing Japan’s army and navy?”

“Splendid. But let us leave politics aside and talk about something lighter.”

He deftly slips away from the question.

The train carrying the delegation continued on its way.

At 12:20 p.m., just as Marquis Paulucci and the others are about to sit down to luncheon, the train pulls into Osan Station, now not far from their destination of Seoul.

Leaving their meal unfinished, the Marquis steps onto the platform. Facing the cheering crowd, he shouts:

“Banzai to the youth of Japan!” and himself leads the ensuing storm of banzais.

Then comes Suwon. As they dine while looking out toward Seoho, Paulucci praises the sea-bream dish to Foreign Affairs Department chief Matsuzawa:

“It really is delicious.”

Suddenly a welcoming aircraft emerges from the far side of the blue heavens and, its engine roaring, sweeps low over the roof of the speeding train.

“That flight is in your honor—it has come to welcome you,” we tell them.

Everyone cranes their necks toward the windows, looking upward and becoming as excited as children.

Soon the Han River), too, is behind us.

And at last the special train of Japanese-Italian friendship glides into Seoul Station, where a surging torrent of cheers awaits.

[Upper photograph] Marquis Paulucci raising his hand in greeting at the station; at left, Director of Political Affairs Ōno welcoming him.

[Lower photograph] The delegation visiting Chōsen Shrine.
[Inset reproduction] Marquis Paulucci’s signature.

Today, Seoul Is an Anti-Comintern City
Waves of Flags, Clouds of Blossoms, a Tempest of Welcome

☆ … Seoul welcomes the guests from allied Italy, friends from southern Europe who stepped proudly from their special train amid a storm of cheers. Under a clear Japanese sky softened by spring haze, the streets are decorated everywhere with crossed Japanese and Italian flags. Signs proclaiming “Viva l’Italia” express the affection, excitement, and enthusiasm felt toward Fascist Italy, which has extended such tremendous friendship to Japan since the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese war.

☆ … From the goodwill train emerges the party of Blackshirts, forming ranks behind their leader, Paulucci. Amid a storm of cries of “Long live Italy!”, the entire party cuts such a dashing figure that one is reminded of the March on Rome. Thoroughly swept up by their reception, and with tears of happiness in their eyes, they respond with the Japanese word “Arigatō,” learned during more than a month of travel through mainland Japan, while raising their right hands in salute. Cheers erupt around them.

☆ … From the station to Chōsen Shrine, the roadside is a sea of flags held by tens of thousands of schoolchildren's organizations. Standing in an open automobile, Marquis Paulucci raises his right hand in an affectionate salute. The welcoming citizens are beside themselves with excitement. From the sacred grounds, fresh with new greenery and fragrant with the spring breeze, the delegation looks down upon the city of Seoul, repeatedly exclaiming:

“What a lovely, clean city!”

At the shrine they are served bancha tea and senbei rice crackers. The members of the delegation knock their tea bowls together as though making a toast, displaying a thoroughly relaxed and good-humored familiarity with the occasion.

☆ … Representing the delegation, Marquis Paulucci signs the shrine register with a writing brush. In Japanese he says: “A little difficult, is it not?”

☆ … After taking a short rest at the shrine, the visitors continue gazing with delight over flower-filled Seoul. “Italian cities are built upon hills, but Seoul is a city among valleys. How beautiful it is!” As they voice their admiration, the people gathered throughout the shrine grounds continually send up cries of “Viva l’Italia!”, completing another warm exchange of goodwill.

☆ … To welcome the goodwill delegation from allied, anti-Comintern Italy, the Seoul Communications authorities have arranged temporary branches of the Seoul Post Office at the delegation’s lodging, the Chōsen Hotel, at the site of the welcoming banquet sponsored by Seoul municipality, and in front of Gyeonghoeru Pavilion, behind the Government-General Building. Temporary arrangements for accepting mail and providing other services will thus be made for the convenience of the delegation.

Culinary “Interlude”
Chōsen Hotel Head Chef Iwabuchi Answers Our Questions
Figuring Out What to Serve the Delegation

With the arrival in Seoul of Marquis Paulucci and the Italian goodwill delegation, there is one group declaring enthusiastically, “we extend goodwill through taste!”

So we decided to ask Tokizō Iwabuchi, head chef of the Chōsen Hotel, a man whose livelihood depends entirely upon his palate, one simple question: “What do Italians like to eat?”

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Iwabuchi is a veteran who has now spent some twenty years at the well-known Chōsen Hotel, and is also regarded as an authority in his profession. Chef Iwabuchi tells us:

“The menu is all set, OK! But since this hotel has been designated as the lodging place for distinguished state guests, this is no ordinary assignment. The trouble with our work is that the effort we put into it is not something that shows directly. So people do not always notice how much trouble we take, which can be a little lonely for us.

“As things stand, the delegation is scheduled to eat only one breakfast here during their stay, but we have made every possible preparation in case anything should arise.

“Some people may think of Italy simply as the home of macaroni, but naturally they have a considerable variety of dishes over there. Generally speaking, however, they appear to prefer fairly light cooking, and they certainly seem not to care much for pork or eggs, so we are paying particular attention to that.

“The delegation is being subjected everywhere to one welcoming banquet after another. So what we are aiming for is a kind of culinary interlude.

“It is rather like a Japanese person, exhausted from being feasted everywhere, suddenly longing for a simple bowl of ochazuke and some takuan pickles.

“We want to use that same idea with the delegation. Avoiding formality altogether, I would like to prepare dishes whose flavors quietly lead our guests into a kind of paradise of taste. I swear that is genuinely what I am hoping to accomplish.

“And if it should turn out that the hotel is asked to provide a dinner as well, I would like to think about a menu incorporating seasonings and dishes distinctive to the Korean peninsula.”

Keijo Nippo Newspaper’s Aircraft Makes a Welcome Flight

To welcome the emissaries of our allied nation, this newspaper dispatched its own aircraft to greet the delegation’s special train on its splendid journey.

Flying as far as the skies above Suwon, its silver wings performed an aerial dance of welcome, producing a magnificent exchange of greetings in the sky and deeply moving the members of the delegation.

Ginseng-and-Deer-Antler Tonic Presented to the Delegation

The Jaseondang (자선당, 慈善堂) Pharmaceutical Company, located in Jongno 3-ga, Seoul, has expressed its heartfelt welcome for the visit to Korea of the Italian goodwill delegation from our allied nation.

To relieve the fatigue of delegation leader Marquis Paulucci and the other visitors after their long journey, and to provide them some comfort during their travels, the company decided to present twenty-six sets of its “Samnyong (삼용, 蔘茸) Tonic,” a restorative medication made from Korea’s famous ginseng and deer antler.

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After receiving the approval of the Government-General authorities, company managing director Kim Il-yeong (김일영, 金一泳) visited this newspaper on the morning of April 22nd and asked us to act as intermediary.

This newspaper immediately made arrangements for the gifts to be presented to the delegation upon its arrival at the Chōsen Hotel.

[Photograph: the Samnyong Tonic presented to the delegation.]

Their Highnesses Prince Yi and Princess Yi
Visit and Comfort the “Warriors in White”

On the sixth day since their return to the palace, Their Highnesses Prince Yi Un (이은, 李垠) and Princess Yi Bangja (이방자, 李方子) have been passing through an extremely busy schedule, including visits to family graves and long-awaited meetings with close relatives.

On the morning of the 23rd, accompanied by their aide-de-camp Major Irie, Director Shinoda of the Office of the Yi Royal Household, and Vice-Director Baron Yi Hang-gu (이항구, 李恒九) Their Highnesses departed Changdeok Palace at 9:00 a.m.

At 9:20 a.m. they visited Army Commander Koiso at his official residence, where they engaged in various cordial conversations. They departed the residence at 9:30 a.m.

At 9:40 a.m. they arrived at Yongsan Army Hospital. Guided by Hospital Director Uno, they first rested briefly in the director’s office. After hearing a detailed report from the director concerning the condition and treatment of the patients, Their Highnesses proceeded in order through the Third Surgical Ward, Second Surgical Ward, First Internal Medicine Ward, and the officers’ ward, where they visited the wounded and sick soldiers: the “warriors in white.”

His Highness acknowledged each wounded or sick soldier individually, asking after his condition and offering words of encouragement. Her Highness likewise made various inquiries through the hospital director.

The royal couple then returned to the director’s office for another brief rest and also conversed with Army Commander Koiso.

At 10:45 a.m., in excellent spirits and seen off by the assembled officials, Their Highnesses departed the hospital and proceeded to Deoksu Palace.

The “warriors in white,” having recently been honored by a visit from Prince Higashikuni, Lieutenant General of the Army, and now once again by the visit of Their Highnesses Prince and Princess Yi, were deeply moved by these repeated honors.

His Highness also expressed profound sympathy for the circumstances of the wounded soldiers and bestowed gifts upon them that day.

[Photograph: respectfully taken this morning at the Army Hospital]

Transcriptions and source images at blog post.

Blog post: https://exposingimperialjapan.com/part-2-1938-italian-fascist-delegation-to-korea/

Sources:

• Digital Newspaper Archive, National Library of Korea
• L'Avvenire D'Italia, January 12, 1938 (link)

See also:

• Part 1 of Fascist Italian Delegation Coverage (link)
• Coverage of Nazi German newspaper delegation in Korea, May 1939 (link)
• Coverage of Fascist Spain’s delegation in Korea, July 1940 (link)

Here's a long shot question! Cleaning my attic and found a photocopy of a photo - no information written. My grandmother is in this photo (white shirt/white hat uniform). I'm looking for any information on estimated time period/location/anything! I only have one other photo of her as a teenager/young adult, and was amazed to find this!

I suspect WW2 era, possibly Manchuria or Siberia? I know at one point she was assigned to guard a morgue at night - she said it was brutally cold and the snow was 'deeper than she was tall.' I think it's Japanese Imperial Army from googling mens uniform details, am I safe to assume the white uniforms are nurses?

(If any other details help - she was born in 1920's, Japan)

一些照片顯示日本在侵略滿洲後使用了從張學良的軍隊中俘獲的雷諾 FT-17 坦克。可以看出他們都使用了 ZB-26 機槍。他們使用的時間仍然未知。

(i'm not sure which flair to add, and im not sure if i can post this either because the image is more focused on the US soldier than the japanese in the background)

I translated it directly from a chinese website, i hope it's correct.

I hope i translated it right, the japanese text was too tiny.
"The county town is just ahead. Soldiers of the Aoto Unit on the North China / Shanxi front line arm-in-arm, helping each other so as not to lose their footing in the mud. (August, 1939)"
”県城はもうすぐ　華北・山西戦線の青砥部隊の兵士たちは
泥に足をとられまいと　腕を組んで助け合う（14年8月）”

Katsuragi was one of two Japanese carriers to survive the war. Both carriers repatriated Japanese servicemen postwar before being scrapped in Japan.

General Tachibana is here receiving guidance from US MIS Nisei T/Sgt. Edwin Kawamoto, aboard the USS Dunlap, near Chichi Jima.

Tachibana, along with his senior staff, was infamous for cannibalism of USN Airmen captured in February and March of 1945. (the "Chichijima Incident"). Future US President George H.W. Bush narrowly avoided such capture.

At Tachibana's 1946 trial for war crimes, he could not be charged with cannibalism because such a charge did not exist under international war crimes law. Instead, he was charged with 'prevention of honorable burial.'

He was found guilty, sentenced to death by hanging, and buried in an unmarked grave on Guam.