Russian coin found in Matsuyama possibly token of thwarted romance

+

MATSUYAMA, Japan, Feb. 9 Kyodo -
A Russian gold coin found in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, on which the names of
a Japanese woman and Russian man were carved could be a memento of a romance
between a Russian prisoner of war and a Japanese nurse, Matsuyama Mayor
Tokihiro Nakamura said Tuesday.
The 10 ruble coin, minted in 1899, was found in a well on the premises of
Matsuyama Castle where a hospital taking in prisoners from the Russo-Japanese
War (1904-1905) was located.
On the coin were the names Naka Takeba and Mikhail Kostenko in Japanese
''katakana'' characters, as well as the Russian alphabet equivalent of M.
Kostenko.
According to the city's education board, there was an article in an old local
newspaper suggesting the two were in love but were torn apart in the end.
''They might have expressed their feelings by engraving their names on the coin
as society back then would not allow a romance beyond national borders,''
Nakamura told a press conference Tuesday.
In the Kainan Shimbun newspaper, now the Ehime Shimbun, issued in 1904, there
was a report about a female nurse named Naka Takeba working at the Imperial
Japanese Army hospital on the castle premises where the Russian prisoners were
institutionalized.
The city reported earlier that the Japanese name found on the coin was Ka
Tachibana but it later corrected the name to Naka Takeba.
==Kyodo
2010-02-09 23:52:31