Shot in 1950 by an unknown U.S. serviceman, this 16mm home movie shows Occupied Japan and briefly Hong Kong. It provides a striking time capsule of post-war life in Japan, a nation which was slowly rebuilding after defeat. It starts in summer with footage of a fire at the port of Yokohama. It also contains footage of a military base, the launching a private motorboat “The Joker”, built for one of the servicemen , and the launch of the fishing vessel “Krill” (briefly seen in another film from the same group). It also contains some cabaret scenes related to R&R — cancan dancing and stage performances.
0:10 Big fire at an open-air storage area
0:24 Bringing a firehose
1:17 A fire engine arrives
2:21 The area after the fire
3:17 A couple of US Army Jeeps fording a stream
4:00 Clearing a landslide
4:20 Mountainous forest
5:04 A group of children and villagers, looking at the strangers (the cameraman)
5:58 The jovial elder green-bespectacled US serviceman, seen in the previous
6:45 A building with a sign Kameyama, probably a rural hotel or an auberge (ryokan or minshuku)
6:54 Another sign Kameyama News
7:03 Electric Lighting Misuzawa Co. Ltd. People in the street. Possibly Oshuu city but might also be Hong Kong.
7:20 Man, making toy temple guardian toys.
8:05 Elderly man, holding a toddler in his arms.
8:28 A shakuhachi flute player busking
8:48 A teenage girl and her mother picking and sorting flowers for making flower decorations and arrangements for bars, hotels etc – it was a typical low-paid job for young women to take at the time.
9:15 Worker on a step-wheel pump in a ricefield
9:30 our green-bespectacled hero, followed by his friend, who trips over the water pipe and almost falls
10:00 Peasants with banners and ceremonial festival shrines walking past a building
10:00 The Golfer, looking younger, with a neatly-dressed Japanese man posing next to a truck. Lots of people gawking at them from behind.
10:49 Two trucks full of Japanese workers in re-purposed Imperial Japanese Army uniforms
11:04 Colonial mansion-styled building int he background
11:19 Curious children and passerby gawking
11:30 two US Servicemen
12:38 Women and men in peasant straw hats and kerchiefs tied over the mouth and nose, to protect from the dusty soil, clearing debris.
14:06 A Japanese MP guard in uniform
14:21 Factory ruins
14:32 American and Japanese servicemen on a motorboat, named “The Joker”, resting upon a flatbed railcar. A Caucasian woman looks up at them.
15:16 Officers’ barracks
16:24 A very non-Japanese looking street with a parked car
18:10 Underexposed footage
18:26 The motorboat
21:41 Rolling the completed motorboat upon the railcar towards the sea
29:45 Hoisting the boat with a crane to lower it into the water
30:52 Together with the Japanese construction crew
33:00 The boat’s in the water
33:33 Circus juggling and acrobat
36:00 Clown, performing magic tricks
36:15 A lone cabaret dancer in a fur-lined sequin two-piece dress
37:05 French cancan dancers
38:00 Comical dancing number
39:00 more types of dancing
40:14 Magic tricks and a lottery game
40:50 Windswept highland landscape peppered with boulders
41:50 City panorama
42:56 Rose Hotel at Tsim Shar Tsui, Hong Kong again
43:05 Far East Motors – Storage
43:18 No longer existing church on the no longer existing hill…
44:29 American with green glasses, wearing a pith helmet and showing his chest
44:33 Elderly officer comes out of the house.
44:52 Meeting their commanding officer
45:35 Their wives – one is Japanese
46:35 A ship decorated for christening and launch
47:10 Launching the fishing vessel “Krill”
47:52 Talking with Japanese wife at the window
47:57 Our green-bespectacled gentleman is an Lt. Colonel
48:10 Ballet dancing
48:32 More cabaret dancing
50:20 Trucks and cars at the officers’ barracks
51:53 A chained pet monkey eating rice from a bowl.
52:44 Turkeys
53:06 Countryside
54:09 A cabinetmaker
55:19 Grandmother with 2 toddlers
55:22 Mother picks up her toddler from a cart
55:50 HQ building in Yokohama again
56:21 Silk embroidery at home of the officer, who made this movie, curtains waving in the light breeze.
56:35 A Japanese vase holding flowers and willow tree branches, and a small Budai statue sit atop a piano
57:38 A wireless radio set
57:57 Details of the vase
58:33 Oni Noh mask hanging on the wall
59:01 Nicely decorated home overall. Closing shot of the wife .
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
