Yokohama, the doorway into Japan within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries / Robert Neff Assortment
Within the nineteenth century, the treaty ports in China, Japan and, to a lesser diploma, Korea, have been typically tormented by beachcombers — often destitute sailors who spent most of their time drunk, begging or committing petty theft to assist their alcoholism. They have been a scourge, barely tolerated till their predations upon most of the people grew to become too disruptive. At that time they have been both jailed or pushed out of city, typically with the help (and funds) of international consuls.
In the summertime of 1895, the editor of an English-language newspaper in Nagasaki condemned the “evil” of the beachcombers in that port, calling it a severe situation that wanted speedy consideration. He described them because the “flotsam and jetsam on the stream of life” — seemingly stowaways and deserters from ships — whose “specious tales…calculated to wring tears from a millstone,” have been their main technique of livelihood.
In lots of instances, the beachcombers weren’t content material to easily loiter on the streets and beg passersby for free change. As a substitute, they entered outlets and companies, imploring the proprietors for bigger sums of cash. The shopkeepers, both preoccupied with different prospects or repulsed by the foul stench of the undesirable intruder, would rapidly provide a yen or two as an inducement for a fast departure. For this act of charity, the beachcomber would loudly reward the giver’s generosity earlier than heading straight to the closest “groggery,” the place they’d drink the foul swill till both unconsciousness overwhelmed them or their funds have been exhausted.
The crowded pier at Yokohama circa 1890-1910 / Courtesy of Diane Nars Assortment
One in every of these beachcombers reportedly boasted to his companions that he had managed to “cadge” $17 in simply two days. Whereas the veracity of this declare stays unsure, it infuriated the editor, who declared that “to present one of many nice unwashed a greenback to ‘get out’ is hardly one of the simplest ways” to handle the social nuisance troubling Nagasaki’s international neighborhood. He urged the residents to harden their hearts, tighten their purse strings and press their consuls to take decisive motion.
Some folks, regardless of the warnings, have been moved by pity and compassion to assist these misplaced souls. Sadly, their kindness typically resulted in bitter betrayals.
One such alleged sufferer of compassion was Julian Blomster. Although Blomster’s nationality stays unclear (seemingly Russian), he married a younger Japanese lady in 1884 who had attended a missionary faculty in Nagasaki. The couple ultimately moved to Vladivostok, the place they loved a snug life and some years later have been blessed with the start of a son. Someday in February 1896, Blomster encountered Hans C. Nilson, a ravenous Norwegian beachcomber wandering the streets of Vladivostok. Motivated by compassion, Blomster took Nilson into his home, cared for him and secured him a job along with his employer.
What started as an act of kindness remodeled right into a story of damage and betrayal as Blomster found six months later that Nilson had seduced his spouse. Although he forgave his spouse, he might now not tolerate Nilson’s presence and threw him out of the home. Surprisingly, regardless of his anger and sense of betrayal, he supplied Nilson with sufficient cash for a steamship ticket to Hong Kong.
Watching the ships are available in at Yokohama, circa 1890-1910 / Robert Neff Assortment
In late summer season of 1896, Blomster’s spouse knowledgeable him of her intention take their son and journey to Kobe, Japan, ostensibly to go to her household. Blomster readily agreed, unaware of her true intentions. She secretly organized to fulfill Nilson there and for a number of weeks, they lived as husband and spouse earlier than she returned to Vladivostok. Upon her return, she gathered the entire household’s cash (over which she had full management) after which left for Nagasaki to reunite with Nilson.
Based on a recent newspaper article, the illicit couple opened a grog store — or, because it was euphemistically referred to as, a “resort” — and commenced a brand new life collectively. The one obvious remorse was the presence of the 8-year-old boy.
Blomster later traveled to Nagasaki searching for authorized redress, however his efforts have been in useless. Sadly for him, the matter was deemed a “civil one,” and no attorneys within the port have been obtainable to help him. Making issues worse, his marriage certificates couldn’t be discovered, and the Rev. W. C. Kitchin, who had officiated their marriage ceremony, was now not in Nagasaki. With no different alternative, Blomster returned to Vladivostok along with his 8-year-old son and “the few odd {dollars} that remained of a as soon as tidy fortune.”
He had misplaced virtually the whole lot: his spouse, his wealth — practically $5,000 of his financial savings and $1,000 that had been put aside for his or her son — and even his gold watch and chain, which Nilson was stated to have proudly displayed. All Blomster might do was hope for “a day of retribution” that will “bode sick for Mrs. Blomster.”
Strolling the bund at Yokohama, circa 1890-1910 / Robert Neff Assortment
In fact, each story has two sides and this one isn’t any totally different. Nilson, in response to Blomster’s account, denounced it as being riddled with malicious allegations and falsehoods. He claimed that he had not arrived in Vladivostok as a beachcomber however had, in actual fact, $100 deposited with a good enterprise in Nagasaki. He asserted that he had solely been in Vladivostok for 3 hours earlier than securing employment with a good month-to-month wage — a place he held till three days previous to his return to Japan.
Based on Nilson, he purchased the resort utilizing “the cash he had saved and a few further capital borrowed from a businessman in Nagasaki.” As for the watch and chain, he bought them himself in Vladivostok for 140 rubles. Notably, he didn’t handle the accusations regarding Mrs. Blomster; in his letter to the newspaper her title was conspicuously absent.
Sometimes, consuls — particularly the American consul — took an energetic function in eradicating troublesome beachcombers from Nagasaki. They’d ship them off to different treaty ports in China or Korea. In December 1886, Walter Legal guidelines, a destitute American, was given a steamship ticket for Jemulpo (trendy Incheon) by the American consul at Nagasaki. Nonetheless, as quickly as Legal guidelines arrived, he discovered himself in hassle with the regulation.
The American consulate at Nagasaki, circa 1900 / Robert Neff Assortment
Whereas ingesting in Daibutsu Resort — a Japanese-owned institution in Jemulpo — Legal guidelines made a disparaging remark a few Chinese language buyer on the bar. Apparently, he spoke louder than he realized, and the Chinese language patron overheard the comment and challenged him to repeat it. The American did, and was promptly shoved. In flip, Legal guidelines punched the aggrieved Chinese language man within the face.
A crowd shortly gathered, vowing vengeance on the American for his unprovoked assault. Luckily for Legal guidelines, the British constable entered the resort and managed to save lots of him, with the group seemingly cowed by the constable’s uniform.
Legal guidelines was arrested and initially held in a Chinese language jail, earlier than being transferred aboard an American warship. After a really transient trial, he was given a return ticket and despatched again to Nagasaki on the identical steamship he had arrived in Jemulpo on.
Jemulpo (a part of modern-day Incheon), circa 1890-1900 / Robert Neff Assortment
Maybe probably the most notorious beachcombers to reach in Korea from Nagasaki was George W. Lake, who landed in Jemulpo in the summertime of 1894. One American diplomat dismissively described him as „an aged and unamiable beachcomber“ — however Lake was no easy destitute sailor. In reality, he was the founding father of one of many largest American corporations in Nagasaki and had a infamous status there resulting from his sordid previous — he had been deported at the very least 4 occasions that yr. Nonetheless, the transgressions he dedicated in Japan paled compared to the darker deeds he had dedicated towards his personal flesh and blood in the USA.
Lake’s presence in Jemulpo was largely because of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese Struggle, which made it unattainable for him to return to Nagasaki, as no steamship would take him again. He settled in Jemulpo, the place he ran a small retailer and financed a few hole-in-the-wall bars. He lived there till his mysterious loss of life in 1898 — an occasion that some, together with the American minister to Korea, believed was attributable to homicide.
Not all beachcombers had darkish pasts, nor have been all of them human, as we will see within the subsequent article.
I want to categorical my honest appreciation to Diane Nars for her invaluable help and for permitting me to make use of one among her pictures.
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored a number of books, together with Letters from Joseon, Korea By way of Western Eyes and Temporary Encounters.
