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Wow that's a nice postcard... But you can't just say : Hi translate all!
First of all how about some background about the postcard, and then maybe some might try to help you out.
Postcard from a Japanese soldier to his parents back home.
Typical content....sorry not to have written for so long, inquiries into their health and of siblings, uncle, etc. He's working hard at his military duties and doing fine so they shouldn't worry about him, etc.
Conjecture that the postcard will reach them about the time the cherry blossoms are falling. Remarks upon looking up at the moon and reflecting on his family back home looking up at the same moon. Closing admonition to take care of themselves.
Actually a whole lot easier to read than it looks at first glance.
The postcard is addressed to Shintaro Matsumoto and written by Shin Matsumoto. Not sure of the address...Kumamoto?
The family would almost certainly appreciate it if you would see that the card gets delivered to them as it was meant to be.
Probably if you copied, put that address on an envelope, put the card in an envelope and sent it to Japan, the post office would get it there. Just put a return address so you get it back in case they can't deliver it.
Well done. I got the Yamagun bit, and Teramachi, but the rest eluded me. In fact, I still don't get how those first two kanji can be Fukushima, but given the Yamagun location it could hardly be anywhere else. The second one looks to me like 京, but I think that line of exploration is a dead end.I think the address might be in what is now Kitakata City, Fukushima Prefecture.
Well done. I got the Yamagun bit, and Teramachi, but the rest eluded me. In fact, I still don't get how those first two kanji can be Fukushima, but given the Yamagun location it could hardly be anywhere else. The second one looks to me like 京, but I think that line of exploration is a dead end.
One nitpick, the recipient is Shinjiro.
Actually, 㐂 is a variation of 喜.The first kanji I just take on faith, as I still can't see 喜 there.
Actually, 㐂 is a variation of 喜.
㐂 - Wiktionary
Just one more nitpick, the reading of the sender's given name might be "Arata".
Yeah, I thought "Shin"was also possible since his father was "Shinjirō". I wrote that because I have a friend whose name is "Arata", and, to tell the truth, I couldn't read his name correctly at the first time. Later, in a classical Japanese class, I knew that the reading of an i-adjective 新しい was originally あらたしい, and あたらしい was spread as a result of misreading. My teacher showed his name as an example of the correct reading in the class.
A memory of my high school days...
Nice catch on the nitpick!
I had to reverse-engineer the address. The 麻 and 郡 were clear, so I started googling on those two together. Went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole of discontinued 郡 for a while, then decided to do a multi-radical kanji lookup on the preceding character, since the right side was very clearly 阝 and I hoped the left side was 耳. Threw them together, got 耶麻郡, which google revealed to be in Fukushima. I figured the third kanji was just a highly cursive styling for the old 縣. If you look carefully at the first two you can see 福 with the old style 示 on the left. Again, use your imagination and compare with some of his other shortcuts from the body of the card and you can see 島 once you know it's there. The city was easy to work out once the 郡 was known, as the 方 was very clear. Once you know the city it is easy to see he used the old style 夛 (多). The first kanji I just take on faith, as I still can't see 喜 there.
I'm hoping I can get the guy or his relatives on the phone today. And if I do, I hope the OP checks back in so I don't end up looking like a jackass for my efforts.
Alright, finally got someone to answer the phone. Learned that Shin Matsumoto has passed away. Did NOT learn if it was the same guy or not. The phone was answered by an old woman who just kept saying she is old, living alone, and doesn't know anything. I strongly suspect it is the right family, but this is going to require third-party help to go talk to her and see if either she or any children or grandchildren are interested. I think the poor old lady was just a wee bit around the bend.
OP, please let us know if you want to try to return it or are just going to hang onto it. I don't want to mobilize other people if it turns out you're going to keep it.