I need help finding the owner of this very old chest. It appears to have a Japanese name painted on it. I found it in an alley in Burbank, CA because someone was getting rid of it. My understanding is that when Japanese people were forced to go to internment camps, they had to just pack up their belonging and put them in storage, oftentimes in hotels. Apparently, this is a major theme of the book, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford, or so says my mother who has read the book. I would really like to return this chest to the family of the original owner.
The biggest clue about this chest is the name painted on it, which is Motochika Maruyama, or Motochika Marugama. I cannot tell whether there is a y or g in the last name. Does anyone know which of those options is a legit Japanese name? Or are they both? On the front of the chest, it appears to say Maruyama.
Here are pictures of it:
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| Side detail of painted name |
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| Side |
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| Top |
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| Front |
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| Back |
Below is what was inside the trunk. There's some kind of fabric that appears to have been the lining of the lid, maybe? It has the company label (Whitney-Woodling Trunk Co.) and, inexplicably, a newspaper obituary of one Nancy Pette glued to it. I also found a business card (It's All Wood, Jeremiah Polynone) and a note with Dick Ruiz's (a.k.a. Papa Smurf) contact info.
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| Company name label: Whitney Woodling Trunk Co. |
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| Obituary for Nancy Pette |
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| Lining of lid? |
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| Other things found in trunk |
Help my find the owner!
