A lovely news item made headlines around my hometown, Matsuyama City. In the renovation and dig work of the Matsuyama Castle area, a Russian gold coin was found at the bottom of an old well in the yard of the castle. Most subscribers would wonder why the Russian gold coin existed in this small Japanese city. It has the following story and I'll write about it later.
Before that, I have to write about my city. Matsuyama City has been noted for the oldest hot spring in Japan, but now it is also known as the birthplace of the Akiyama brothers and Shiki Masaoka, who had lived through the Meiji Era. Japan had been struggling to become one of the superpowers at that time. Russia and China were about to swallow Japan. The Akiyama brothers were heros in the Japanese-Russo War (1904-05), in which Japan beat Russia. The captive soldiers in the war were transferred to Matsuyama and were taken into custody for a certain term. Japan wanted to be respected as one of the developed countries and took care of the captives with fine consideration for their feelings.
Back to the track, two people's names were carved on the coin. One is a Russian man's name and the other is a Japanese woman's name. Both were confirmed to have been actually alive in the time of the war. As you can imagine, the man was a prisoner and the woman was a nurse working at the prisoner's hospital. After the closure of the hospital, she seemed to have gone back to her hometown. The spokesman added that the love between opponent countries would have been prohibited in those days. They might have left a kind of symbol of their affection. The bottom of the well would be one of the best sites to place it, for no one could steal it.
See also; http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2009/07/bridge-of-mikas.html
(Vocabulary)
item (新聞・雑誌などの短い) 記事, (テレビ，ラジオなどの) ニュース項目
a short news item 短いニュース項目
make headlines around the world ニュースが世界を駆け巡る
dig （考古学の）発掘
Japanese-Russo War 日露戦争
captive soldier 捕虜となった兵士
consideration for others' feelings（他人の気持ちへの）気配り
carve [他] 〈像など〉 を彫る, 彫刻する, 〈木・石など〉 に彫刻する
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