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 1946-47 and possibly as late as 1948. It is a companion of film 31234. The film features men of the “First Team” 1st Cavalry Division — which was given the honor of leading the Allied Occupational Army into Tokyo. It also provides a fascinating look at Japan in this era, with its infrastructure heavily damaged and population struggling to rebuild. Indeed, the Yokohama city and port areas were subject to extensive redevelopment, so that few of those areas remain, except the Nozawaya Department Store.
0:09 The Grand Cherry Ballroom (a converted bank) was a favored dance hall and watering hole located near Sakaragicho Station in Yokohama. Sign reads: ‘The new Grand Cherry BAR and BALLROOM Upstairs. World fame in full bloom – Grand Cherry Blossoms STEP up LOOK and FANCY” and another sign: “USE YOUR FREE TIME WISELY at the new Grand Cherry Ballroom”.
0:15 Ad with a bug-eyed man holding a bottle: “Drinking and dancing with fascinating music”
0:20 Hand-drawn advertisement of a lovey-dovey couple
0:25 A two funnel grey-liveries passenger ship at a pier
0:32 Panorama of mixed brown-brick and concrete buildings, factory funnels on the horizon, presumably in Yokohama
0:35 Large motorized sloops loaded with lumber and other products. Another one passing by with no funnel so that the exhaust produces a column of flame.
00:48 Port and city buildings.
0:53 Five cars being towed on a cable tow by a single small truck.
1:05 Large cranes at the port, lots of sloops and barges in the port basin.
1:20 Tugboat and water taxi
1:37 Ships at a pier
1:40 In the foreground, slick salary man busily and quickly walks by, while in the background – a Japanese man, maybe a demobilized IJA soldier, dressed in a tattered military uniform, walks away.
1:49 Japanese families with children looking at the sea and at the cameraman
1:58 Small riverboat
2:02 Men unloading stripped logs from a riverboat
2:22 Concrete rubble and pillars, with a small sign of Christian lectures (キリスト教講座).2:25 Yokohama Chamber of Commerce, apparently a former YMCA building.
2.30 People on the street. People visible wearing masks. 500-Type Yokohama city trams / trolley cars.
2:47 Yokohama Nozawaya Department Store
3:04 Coaliers unloading coal in sling-carried baskets from a barge
3.30 Souvenir shop next to a camera shop, the signs are in English for the US servicemen
3:43 Waiting for a parade to start. This may have been the 06 April, 1946 Army Day Parade in Tokyo.
3:47 Army jeeps and a mobile command center, travel agency in the background
3:53 US Military MPs and traffic patrol motorcycles and jeeps. Large crowds of Japanese waiting. A Japanese policeman stands on the left.
4:11 White-helmeted military marching band
4:25 Overhead shot
4:45 Women of the US Army, probably Women’s Army Corps or WACs, but possibly WAACs 4:55 Flagbearers
5:04 Army jeeps
5:12 Halftrack APCs
5:19 Gen. Eichelberger, left, accompanied by other officers, possibly including Lieutenant General Harry Schmidt. “Eighth Army Administration” sign in the background
5:47 Army Packard Clipper and other dignitaries cars.
5:57 The Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Building, in Tokyo, now General Headquarters of the Allied Forces (GHQ).
6:10 Hibiya Park. Taking a photo of woman in a kimono
6:26 Imperial palace, across from Hibiya park
6:56 A guard booth, bearing an 1st Cavalry insignia, at the Imperial Palace
7:05 Imperial palace buildings
7:18 Black smoke rising from a funny-looking chimney on the roof of a Tokyo condo. Fuel and housing shortages gave rise to makeshift solutions.
7:27 Japanese peasants – men, women and children, threshing rice by hand and with a rice-thresher.
7:35 A small harvest of green cabbages
8:01 Japanese countryside and scenes of rural life
8:26 A wood-powered, gas generator bus, full of students, has stopped for a refueling break
8:35 A rural ferry named Fuji-maru (富士丸)
9:10 The anonymous US G.I., arriving in a jeep
9:20 Seaside landscapes
9:58 A small white goat, a soldier approaches and plays with it
10:21 Terraced rice fields
10:28 A woman with a child
10:30 More rice-threshing with children looking on.
10:53 Hops
11:00 1930s steel bridge, pan down from the American flag towards a flowerbed on the military base
11:30 Mess hall surrounded by flowering bushes
11:49 Showing his barracks, number
12:08 An official-looking building , and a group of teenage girls walking from it
12:42 A family frolicking on a deserted beach during the low tide.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
