I Just Got An Email Back From A Maternal Step-grandson Of Miss Appleton. Y'all. Huge.

I just got an email back from a maternal step-grandson of Miss Appleton. Y'all. Huge.

First up: He sadly does not have much in ways of concrete info, leads, so on. But what he shared was enough for me to confidently and 100% assert who this woman was, where she was, and so on. Mystery solved on that front--Blanche worked with SCAP during the occupation as an economic advisor.

Second up: He did mention some incredibly neat apocrypha/family lore. Apparently Blink--as she was called by friends--was rumored to be very well-connected; however, this specifically is believed to be attributed to the position of her husband.

I'm gonna start hounding down that particular family tree ladder, but this was massively useful, if only because it lessens any chance of confusing anyone else for Blink.

“It’s like he’s picking up parts of the world and showing them to me, saying, See? It’s beautiful.”

— Cath Crowley, Words in Deep Blue

I am now having to follow two entirely distinct leads at once. Appleton may actually exist because there's at least one contemporary news article referencing her by name and working for the GHQ. But the alleged photograph of Appleton also has Toshihiro Shoda, an heir to a major brewery, standing next to her.

Shoda Shoyu was set to inherit Kikkoman company assets in a trustbusting investigation which found Kikkoman and four other major brewery corporations guilty of price fixing. There's also a growing pile of evidence of major dissension intracompany at Kikkoman during this period of rapid expansion into American markets during postwar, at which point the clan leader of Kikkoman family interests got involved with the U.S. Supreme Court. I can't say for certain but there might very well be illegal aspects/involvement with organized crime in this story at its root.

I'm a fucking fashion design major. Why is this happening to me. No I'm not going to stop until I get to the bottom of this, but still.

I'M OBSESSED

King street II

This really is the vibe!

there should be an alternative to marriage where you just ritualistically vow to have an on-again-off-again relationship for as long as you two shall live