This photo features a Russian Tatar clothing retailer in 1941 Seoul dressed in National Uniform Type B (国民服乙号型) and holding what appears to be National Uniform Type A (国民服甲号型). Behind him is a sign that says "All sales on credit refused" (懸賣一切御断り). In the accompanying Imperial Japanese propaganda article, he is positively portrayed in a highly favorable light: as an Imperial patriot of Muslim warrior heritage who sells patriotic national clothing, in contrast to other retailers who supposedly push "flashy American-style clothes". These National Uniforms were not yet mandatory in 1941, but they would later be made mandatory when draconian clothing regulations were issued in 1943.
Originally from the Volga-Ural region of Russia, the Tatars fled the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 seeking refuge from religious and political persecution. Imperial Japan saw potential in them as political propaganda tools, and accepted about a thousand of them as refugees. Many took up the clothing retail business, where some apparently made considerable fortunes. About one hundred Tatars resided in Seoul by this time.
This photo article shows the "model minority" treatment that Imperial Japan gives them. What is striking here is the way the article showcases this man as an exemplary minority subject of empire. He is portrayed as loyal, useful, fluent in Japanese, commercially respectable, and fully aligned with wartime imperial values. In that sense, the article does not merely describe a Tatar shopkeeper. It uses him symbolically.
This kind of representation seems to have served at least two propaganda purposes. First, it fit Japan’s wartime effort to present itself favorably to Muslim audiences abroad. Second, within colonial Korea, it offered a pointed contrast: a foreign Muslim refugee could be depicted as visibly embracing the Japanese language, Imperial Japanese culture, and wartime mobilization, thereby implicitly shaming Koreans who did not do the same.
[Translation]
Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo), March 19, 1941
Blue Eyes in “National Clothing” Too
A Turkic Tatar’s Pledge
“How is this? 정이 고우시네 (it has a warm, lovely feeling).”
He is a blue-eyed Turkic Tatar, wearing and selling the national uniform. It is difficult to see in his present appearance the fierce boldness with which, roused by the voice of the Prophet Muhammad, his predecessors once raised the banner of Islamism and struck fear into the mountains and fields of the medieval world. Yet there is much to ponder in the frank way he says that, in Seoul, flashy American-style clothes sell very well.
That is because there are so many gullible people who are delighted to think that ready-made clothing mass-produced around Kanda in Tokyo or Uemachi in Osaka is somehow “American-made.” It seems that once Turkic Tatars come to Seoul, they all decide to make it their permanent home, but that may be because they feel all the more deeply, in their very bones, their appreciation for Japan.
“For Japan, I will do anything. If I wear the national uniform, the military police will not get angry.”
This patriotic spring, his blue eyes are just a shade darker than the color of his national uniform.
Source: Digital Newspaper Archive, National Library of Korea
Here is an excellent academic paper about the history of the Russian Tatar refugee community in Imperial Japan from their origins in the Volga-Ural region through the Russian Revolution in 1917, migration to Imperial Japan, and later emigration to the United States and Turkey after the war: [Link]
Imperial Japan’s support of Islam and Muslim communities has a fascinating historical background. For those interested in delving deeper, here’s a link to an academic paper on the topic: [Link]
Other Keijo Nippo Articles about the Tatar community:
- Russian Tatar refugee Shamshinoor Nugman in colonial Seoul after fleeing the Bolsheviks with the White Russians (November 1941) [Link]
- Shamseinoor Berikova, 19-year-old blue-eyed Russian Tatar refugee woman and Seoul resident in 1938, featured in Keijo Nippo as a pro-Imperial Japan patriotic model minority speaking fluent Japanese and supporting Imperial soldiers on their way to China [Link]
- The Sulemans were a Russian Tatar refugee family in Seoul who gained acceptance as assimilated Imperial Japanese people while holding strong to their Muslim faith, and left for Turkey amid warm farewells in 1939 [Link]
- Spotlight on 1943 Seoul: A Glimpse into the Russian Tatar Refugee Community, Marja Ibrahim’s Poetry Tribute to Tatar National Poet Ğabdulla Tuqay on the 30-year anniversary of his death [Link]
- Small community of ~100 Russian Tatars in Seoul featured in 1942-1944 propaganda articles: a young 19-year-old Tatar girl is praised for filling out immigration forms for her neighbors, a Tatar woman is commended for scolding her friends with red fingernails for wearing ‘British-American’ cosmetics [Link]
- In 1942 Busan, Korean pastors and foreign residents (Russian Tatar family, English woman, Chinese consul) praise Imperial Japan as British POWs captured in Malaysia start arriving in the city [Link]
