HOME MOVIES: OCCUPIED JAPAN

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1947

Format: 16mm

Description: This silent 16mm footage is a home movie shot by an American serviceman in Occupied Japan. Based on research we believe it was filmed during the Chrismas holidays of 1947, and no later than 1948 (due to Gen. Eichelberger retirement). The film features the U.S. Eighth Army Headquarters and the "First Team" 1st Cavalry Division -- which was given the honor of leading the Allied Occupational Army into Tokyo. It also features everyday Yokohama streets and ordinary Japanese people of 1947. It also shows skiing in a Nagano alpine ski station, Kamakura temples and the the Kamakura, Great Buddha, and rare footage of a colossal Great Kannon (goddess of mercy) statue of Oofuna or Takasaki under restoration. 0:36 Playing golf at a grounds which cannot be identified – at least 34 golf clubs existed before the war in Japan, the first one opened in 1903. Possibly Tokyo Golf Club, as the footage comes from Yokohama 0:39- Base grounds and the surrounding farming countryside landscape – a baseball field in the foreground. 1:00-1:40 Three friends, all sergeants in 1st Cavalry look at something from an outdoors military base balcony, talking relaxedly and laughing. 1:28 A military salute ending in a pan to the American flag 1:40-2:00 One of them, comes out of the building and walks to the side of a parked fire truck, explaining the functioning of it. 2:00 The base grounds 2:00 - 2:31 American and Japanese children playing baseball 2:32-2:46 Three little Japanese girls and a little boy, standing together by the side of a canal, looking at the camera and smiling, they all run off, laughing. 2:48 A pub named The Port. 2:54 Yokohama streets, a man in a IJA uniform stripped of insignia in the foreground. Suzuki Barbershop, Yokohama. 3:00 People at the market, man in a IJA winter coat stripped of insignia and an American serviceman in the background listening to an old woman storyteller and biwa (Japanese lute) player, who's dressed in tasteful tattered clothing and is smoking a pipe. 3:13 Sign on the building, presumably one of the few large surviving shopping malls, reads - A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, together with a tiny sign in English "Sakura Haircuts " 3:27 Sign on the lightpole «  大貫写真材料カーラー映画 "Oogan Photographic materials, color film". Civilians and demobilized Imperial Japanese soldiers walking by. 3:40 Dai Kannon (or Colossal Avalokiteshvara Guanyin) goddess of Mercy Colossal statue of either – Oofuna Daikannon of Kanagawa prefecture (大船観音) under reconstruction (completed in 1954) – commemorating the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims, or the 1936-built Takasaki Byakue Daikannon (高崎白衣大観音) 3:45 Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Temple (鶴岡八幡宮), or the temple of the God of War, Kamakura 4:00 Kenchou-ji Temple, monastery, Kamakura 4:35 Great Buddha of Kamakura 5:02 An American football match, presumably in Yokohama 5:42 A marching band concludes the match and marks the start of «  public entertainment  6:02 Two people in a horse costume, bearing the 1st Cavalry insignia 6:08-6:26 A US serviceman and his pet monkey 6:32 Headquarters of the Eighth US Army, with the insignia of it and the sign «  Headquarters Eighth US Army Lt. General Robert L.Eichelberger commanding  7:10 One of the friends of the person who made the film. 7:30 Snowy mountainside. 7:33 Putting on mountain skis and... 7:45 sliding down a hillock 7:57 "Welcome to the Shiga Heights Special services Hotel " The hotel is located in Nagano, Nagano prefecture, near a national park and a ski resort. It catered to the members of the industrial elite before the war. 8:05- T-bar surface ski lift from in the foothills 8:18 Taking a chair lift ever higher up the mountain... 8:34 again ...8:46  ... and skiing down, finally  ! 8:53 And a fall 9:05 Snowplow -- appropriate style for a beginner downhill skier  9:20 More proficient downhill skiers - 9:20 Count Ski-cula – an early adopter of what seems to be a para-ski 9:39 Here he is again 10:32 The Shiga Heights hotel building, constructed in European Alpine style. 11:04 A bit unsteady on his feet after a day full of skiing. 11:10-11:40 Our heroes on the deserted beach. 11:55 A woman knitting, while selling traditional Japanese winter snacks – persimmons and clementine oranges. Servicemen buying the fruit. The shop insignia says 小川亭  or Ogawa-tei, meaning that it is also a traditional rural guesthouse. 12:30 Japanese fishermen on the shore 12:40 13:10 Seaside landscapes and the sea. 13:10 And back to a snowy mountain range 13:47 Tourists putting on their skis and sliding off 14:17 Taking the ski lift again and the view down from the ski lift.

Complete Record: This silent 16mm footage is a home movie shot by an American serviceman in Occupied Japan. Based on research we believe it was filmed during the Chrismas holidays of 1947, and no later than 1948 (due to Gen. Eichelberger retirement). The film features the U.S. Eighth Army Headquarters and the "First Team" 1st Cavalry Division -- which was given the honor of leading the Allied Occupational Army into Tokyo. It also features everyday Yokohama streets and ordinary Japanese people of 1947. It also shows skiing in a Nagano alpine ski station, Kamakura temples and the the Kamakura, Great Buddha, and rare footage of a colossal Great Kannon (goddess of mercy) statue of Oofuna or Takasaki under restoration. 0:36 Playing golf at a grounds which cannot be identified – at least 34 golf clubs existed before the war in Japan, the first one opened in 1903. Possibly Tokyo Golf Club, as the footage comes from Yokohama 0:39- Base grounds and the surrounding farming countryside landscape – a baseball field in the foreground. 1:00-1:40 Three friends, all sergeants in 1st Cavalry look at something from an outdoors military base balcony, talking relaxedly and laughing. 1:28 A military salute ending in a pan to the American flag 1:40-2:00 One of them, comes out of the building and walks to the side of a parked fire truck, explaining the functioning of it. 2:00 The base grounds 2:00 - 2:31 American and Japanese children playing baseball 2:32-2:46 Three little Japanese girls and a little boy, standing together by the side of a canal, looking at the camera and smiling, they all run off, laughing. 2:48 A pub named The Port. 2:54 Yokohama streets, a man in a IJA uniform stripped of insignia in the foreground. Suzuki Barbershop, Yokohama. 3:00 People at the market, man in a IJA winter coat stripped of insignia and an American serviceman in the background listening to an old woman storyteller and biwa (Japanese lute) player, who's dressed in tasteful tattered clothing and is smoking a pipe. 3:13 Sign on the building, presumably one of the few large surviving shopping malls, reads - A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, together with a tiny sign in English "Sakura Haircuts " 3:27 Sign on the lightpole «  大貫写真材料カーラー映画 "Oogan Photographic materials, color film". Civilians and demobilized Imperial Japanese soldiers walking by. 3:40 Dai Kannon (or Colossal Avalokiteshvara Guanyin) goddess of Mercy Colossal statue of either – Oofuna Daikannon of Kanagawa prefecture (大船観音) under reconstruction (completed in 1954) – commemorating the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims, or the 1936-built Takasaki Byakue Daikannon (高崎白衣大観音) 3:45 Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Temple (鶴岡八幡宮), or the temple of the God of War, Kamakura 4:00 Kenchou-ji Temple, monastery, Kamakura 4:35 Great Buddha of Kamakura 5:02 An American football match, presumably in Yokohama 5:42 A marching band concludes the match and marks the start of «  public entertainment  6:02 Two people in a horse costume, bearing the 1st Cavalry insignia 6:08-6:26 A US serviceman and his pet monkey 6:32 Headquarters of the Eighth US Army, with the insignia of it and the sign «  Headquarters Eighth US Army Lt. General Robert L.Eichelberger commanding  7:10 One of the friends of the person who made the film. 7:30 Snowy mountainside. 7:33 Putting on mountain skis and... 7:45 sliding down a hillock 7:57 "Welcome to the Shiga Heights Special services Hotel " The hotel is located in Nagano, Nagano prefecture, near a national park and a ski resort. It catered to the members of the industrial elite before the war. 8:05- T-bar surface ski lift from in the foothills 8:18 Taking a chair lift ever higher up the mountain... 8:34 again ...8:46  ... and skiing down, finally  ! 8:53 And a fall 9:05 Snowplow -- appropriate style for a beginner downhill skier  9:20 More proficient downhill skiers - 9:20 Count Ski-cula – an early adopter of what seems to be a para-ski 9:39 Here he is again 10:32 The Shiga Heights hotel building, constructed in European Alpine style. 11:04 A bit unsteady on his feet after a day full of skiing. 11:10-11:40 Our heroes on the deserted beach. 11:55 A woman knitting, while selling traditional Japanese winter snacks – persimmons and clementine oranges. Servicemen buying the fruit. The shop insignia says 小川亭  or Ogawa-tei, meaning that it is also a traditional rural guesthouse. 12:30 Japanese fishermen on the shore 12:40 13:10 Seaside landscapes and the sea. 13:10 And back to a snowy mountain range 13:47 Tourists putting on their skis and sliding off 14:17 Taking the ski lift again and the view down from the ski lift.