HOME MOVIES: 1953

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1953

Format: 16mm

Description: One of a series of extraordinary home movies shot in Occupied Japan immediately after WWII, this film shows scenes of the long trip back towards the United States via both civilian and military airplanes. It was probably filmed in 1953, based on the fact that an early jet airliner appears in the footage. The man who filmed these was a Harvard graduate ('43) and U.S. Army Intelligence Officer named Robert Ryan. Ryan may have very well worked for the OSS, although it's not clear. He definitely worked as an instructor at the U.S. Army's AFFE Intelligence School, and toured Vietnam in the early 1960s to conduct strategic vulnerability surveys. These films dates to the period July 1947-May 1951, when Ryan served in the Department of Defense in the Geographic Branch, Theater Intelligence Division, Far East Command. During this time he served in Occupied Japan and in the Korean theater. The film begins at the Haneda Air Field / Haneda Army Air Base, now known as the Tokyo International Airport aka Tokyo Haneda Airport, or Haneda International Airport. Footage includes shots of hangars and impressive views from the control tower (:32). At (:50) the Alaska Airlines DC-6 "Starliner Aleutian" is shown on the runway. At (:59) the props are rotated prior to engine start. At (2:10), overexposed footage from inside another aircraft as it leaves Japan. At (2:21) servicemen peer out the window at what appears to be an active volcano off the coast. (This might be the Myojin Knoll volcano, which erupted in 1952.) At (3:39), point of view shots as the plane lands at an airport. At (4:09) are point of view shots, shot from an observer's position in the bubble nose of an aircraft -- possibly an RB-29 reconnaissance airplane. At 5:00, a military aircraft lands at an island airport -- followed by another POV shot of landing at an airport, from the cockpit. At 5:41, a BOAC jet -- a de Havilland DH.106 Comet (the world's first commercial jet airliner) lands. At 6:03, a Douglas A-20 Havoc with yellow markings on its engine nacelles sits on the tarmac.

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