1914 Japanese Monument at the Alamo
To the Memory of the Heroes of the Alamo
Notes: A very scarce postcard commemorating the placement of a Japanese memorial at the Alamo in 1914. The Tokyo scholar Shigetaka Shiga commissioned a granite monument for the Alamo, comparing the events there with the siege of Nagashino Castle in Japan in 1575. The memorial became controversial during World War Two, and there was an effort to remove it, but it remains today as one of the oldest markers at the site.
The front of this postcard reproduces the text of the monument, a poem by Shiga in classical Chinese. Surrounding the image of the monument is text in Japanese. On the back of the postcard is a brief history of the Alamo siege and an explanation of the content of the monument"
"Prof. Shigetaka (Juko) Shiga brought two stones from the native province of Suneemon Torii, the Bonham of Japan; in the province is Nagashino, the Japanese Alamo, and, in inscribing a Chinese poem in eulogy of the gallant Americans, erected a tomb (6 ft. x 2 ft.) after Japanese fashion in November 1914. Thus the Japanese professor's verse, "the East and the West have no difference in sympathy with noble death," comes to match with the Texan inscription "Thermopylae had its message of defeat, the Alamo had none."
3-1/2 by 5-17/32 inches.
Edition + Condition: A fine copy, with a circular orange stamp in Japanese.
Publication: San Antonio, TX: Prof. Shigetaka (Juko) Shiga, 1914.
Item No: #307577
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