The Josephine books were a very successful series in the 1920s, perhaps conceived as a girls' version of the Winnie the Pooh stories. Josephine has sixteen dolls, including boys, girls, teddy bears, and a large stuffed duck. Josephine narrates the stories, which usually involve a somewhat chaotic enactment of an institution or adventure, with Josephine playing the part of the adult and the dolls as "children"  to be chided and instructed. Thus the little girl's imagination is the engine of the dolls' personalities and activities. However, the illustrations by Honor Appleton bring this fantasy to life, with the dolls playing their parts vividly.
    Among the dolls in Appleton's illustrations are two very charming little Japanese girl dolls, dancing, bowing, kneeling, with the particular cheery awkwardness typical of cheaper ichimatsu types--BUT they are not Japanese! They are "The two Koreans."
 

This illustration (below left)  from the first book, Josephine and Her Dolls, goes with a catalogue (noting defects) of the 16 dolls.  For #13 and #14, the text reads "The two Koreans. They are twins, and they came from a a place called Korea. One arm off each."  (The lack of an arm often means that the two dolls are depicted as Siamese twins, very closely side by side)
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The dolls certainly appear to be Japanese: the split-peach bun hairdo, the set of the eyes and modeling of the face and arms. The kimono is a bit different from the true Japanese kimono in that the red edging appears to be an applied border (in a Japanese doll it would be a layer of red kimono worn underneath the top one); the sash does not have a big obi bow in back, just a small square knot.  However, this is sometimes true in Japanese play dolls in the West, where the bow becomes detached and the gown is made or understood based on an esthetic of trimming rather than the original esthetic of layers.  Compare Appleton's drawings to the Japanese doll from my collection, above right.

	There is also a consistent oddity in the way the Koreans' mouths are depicted, as if each doll has a vertical red line drawn on her face or a very long, very red lower lip.  I can't account for this by any parallel to a  Japanese doll.

The first book is set during World War I, and presents  a child's reaction to the adult conversation about patriotism, casualties, the Red Cross, and so on.  At left: Josephine and the others emote over the departure of Sunny Jim for the Allied front. (Note that a Japanese flag is among those displayed). The two Koreans turn out to have no personality at all in the story; they are only mentioned in the catalogue of dolls. However, they appear frequently in the illustrations. In Josephine Keeps School, the only evidence of them is again in the illustrations. I have not seen most of the other titles, but it seems likely that this was the pattern for the series. Usually Japanese dolls have a strong personality in stories, in the text as well as in illustrations. For example, the Japanese fondness for study of Western ways, artistic qualities, or romantic inclinations often are suggested. Perhaps it is the fact that these dolls are from Korea, a country whose habits and style were so much less known, that leaves them a kind of blank in Josephine's (and Mrs. Craddock's) mind.

However, I do have a copy of Josephine Goes Travelling, in which the two Koreans get a few lines to themselves. The dolls are being photographed for their passports:

    The two Koreans came next. They wanted to be together in their picture; but Mummy said, "No, not this time, dears,"  so they went up one by one.
    "Are you two young ladies from Japan?" said the photographer.
    "No, from Korea,"  Mummy answered for them; "but it's not far from Japan."