tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243926228844409495.post7041143024500872239..comments2024-03-26T01:25:08.843-07:00Comments on Getting Back into Baseball Cards....in Japan: The Pre War Hall of Famer Card BottleneckUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243926228844409495.post-18426667270715723292021-02-28T19:52:09.127-08:002021-02-28T19:52:09.127-08:00Oh wow, that postcard is amazing!
The thing that...Oh wow, that postcard is amazing! <br /><br />The thing that makes me dismiss the war time ravages explanation is exactly that - there are tons of pre-war paper items (books, woodblock prints, postcards, etc) still in existence. Certainly some stuff went up in flames during the war, but most stuff clearly survived.<br /><br />Its true that the first baseball league was founded during the same era, but I don't know if I would dismiss the government discouragement explanation entirely based on that alone. If you look at the menko that were made in the late 1930s the one thing that unifies them is that they feature subject matter that could serve a propoganda based purpose. Sumo wrestlers, Samurai warriors, soldiers and so on. Baseball players didn't really fit in to that. I don't know if the government actively censored them (though its certainly possible) but I can imagine businesses were being actively encouraged to show their nationalism. Actually I don't need to speculate on that, business leaders were literally being assassinated for failing to show the proper degree of nationalism at the time. <br /><br />Bear in mind too that there would have been a pretty big difference between the regulation of sports on the one hand and printed matter on the other. Its way easier to censor little pieces of cardboard than it is to shut down a sports league. Seanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13681778110046124243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243926228844409495.post-35042551488884674912021-02-28T19:35:27.922-08:002021-02-28T19:35:27.922-08:00Yup, its a lot to wrap a head around!!Yup, its a lot to wrap a head around!!Seanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13681778110046124243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243926228844409495.post-23973515681873498872021-02-26T19:55:45.549-08:002021-02-26T19:55:45.549-08:00When looking at early postcards I always try to de...When looking at early postcards I always try to determine if there's a hall of famer on them. Pre-war menko are practically impossible to find in America, but postcards printed during tours of visiting American teams turn up sometimes. (Including this one: https://www.net54baseball.com/showpost.php?p=1975253&postcount=275 which was mailed by one of the players.) I always check to see if there's a Japanese hall of famer on a postcard, but it's usually impossible to tell. For one thing, it's very hard to find out which years a player was on a college team. You can guestimate based on their age, but that's not such a good guide. Sometimes Japanese wikipedia says, but often not. If anybody knows where there are records of this stuff, I'd love to hear about it.<br /><br />I doubt that the dearth of 1930s menko was due to gov't discouragement. After all, Japanese baseball leagues flourished through the 30s, and it was in 1936 that the first professional league was founded. You'd think that they would have come down harder on those things than on kids' toys if they disapproved of baseball.<br /><br />It's also tempting to blame the lack of surviving menko on something big and dramatic, like a war. And maybe it did have something to do with it. (I dunno? Are pre-war Japanese books super rare? They're also very flammable.) But by nature I'm inclined towards boring explanations. Compared to postwar menko, they were made for fewer years, longer ago. Which means there were probably fewer of them to start with, and they had more opportunities for the vagaries of the world to take their toll on them. (Including both moms who are bothered by clutter and world wars.)<br /><br />And I'm not really surprised that they were produced for only a couple years, given that post-war cards were produced in spurts too. (If longer than a couple years.) Round menko, pillar menko, and the classic post-war bromides were really only produced from 1947 to ~1951.Nicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4243926228844409495.post-10927350764836138162021-02-26T16:37:09.304-08:002021-02-26T16:37:09.304-08:00Lots of good info today, although I'm kind of ...Lots of good info today, although I'm kind of glad that I don't have to try and wrap my head around any of it, American (and the occasional German) issued items are tough enough for me as is.Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13043468725408104535noreply@blogger.com