IN OCCUPIED JAPAN - THE HISTORIC DOCUMENT IN KODACHROME OF THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF LIFE IN THE FALLEN EMPIRE OF THE RISING SUN. REEL TWO [Main Title]
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- Title: IN OCCUPIED JAPAN - THE HISTORIC DOCUMENT IN KODACHROME OF THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF LIFE IN THE FALLEN EMPIRE OF THE RISING SUN. REEL TWO [Main Title]
- Film Number: MGH 4391
- Other titles: WILLIAM COURTENAY AMATEUR FILMS OF PACIFIC WAR 1943 - 1946] [Alternative Title]
- Summary: Amateur colour film shot by British journalist (Sunday Times, Sunday Chronicle, Daily Graphic) William Courtenay of the US 1st Cavalry Division's entry into Tokyo (8 September 1945), scenes in and around Tokyo and subsequent trips to Sasebo, Kagoshima and particularly Nagasaki (probably in October 1945) recording the extensive damage. Hiroshima and the Emperor Hirohito's visit in December 1947.
- Description: A road, with extensive bomb damage on either side, leading to a bridge across the Tama-gawa. Two men in the foreground are pushing a handcart. Three US vehicles (a jeep and two trucks) cross the bridge - presumably this is the official entry into Tokyo on 8 September. On the left-hand side of the bridge is a large sign stating, 'You are now entering Tokyo courtesy of 1st Cavalry Division. The First Team. First in Manila. First in Tokyo.' Soldiers pose below the sign. Temple, street scenes showing some traffic movement and ruins. Pan from rooftop of fire bomb devastated streets, showing undamaged torii (temple gates) and temporary housing (these street scenes were actually shot in December 1945). US Embassy with the US 1st Cavalry Division forming a Guard of Honour. MS of Major General William Chase, commander of 1st US Cavalry. MacArthur arrives by car with Admiral Halsey for the official occupation and the raising of the US flag on 18 September and are greeted by Chase. (01:45:00:00) General Robert Eichelberger raises the flag. The Union Jack flies over the British Embassy. Japanese civilians - mostly women - and some uniformed Japanese ex-soldiers walk along a railway station platform. A train departs in the background. A visit to Miyanoshita, a spa in the Hakone region a short distance from Tokyo. Pan across rooftops of temples and ornate buildings, showing a wooded hilly surrounding countryside. A woman and child feed koi carp. US troops outside the Emperor's residence hold uniformed journalists and others at bayonet point . The top-hatted silhouette of the Emperor is seen as he leaves in his official vehicle, a 1932 Mercedes-Benz type 770 Pullman-Limousine, on September 27 for his first meeting with MacArthur. A visit to a Japanese film studio (Toho) during the making of Akira Kurosawa's 'The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail'. Actors in Samurai costumes pose jokingly for the camera. The actor smoking is Takeshi Shimura. Actresses and actors pose together and with US soldiers. Amongst the second group in the interior sequence is William Courtenay, the journalist and the cameraman - at the beginning of the pan, he is standing on the left-hand side of the screen with his cap tucked under his right arm. On his right stands a Japanese actor. Actresses pose by themselves. CU of two actresses dressed as traditional Geishas. MCU US soldiers interpose themselves between the group of actresses. (01:51:00:00) Pan of Tokyo from rooftop (almost certainly MacArthur's HQ in the Dai-Ichi Insurance Building) showing evidence of fire bomb raids, with only concrete buildings still standing and major thoroughfares relatively untouched. The Outer Garden of the Imperial Palace and the Palace itself are seen opposite, across the Hibiya-bori Moat. Scenes of Japanese uniformed ex-servicemen and civilians in the street and boarding a tram. Some people feed koi in one of the Moats surrounding the Outer Garden. Women wearing baggy monpe trousers cross a street. A change of season - Winter. A family wearing traditional dress walk in the Outer Garden of the Imperial Palace. A man and two boys remove their hats and bow towards the Palace. CU of a group of boys, with armed US soldiers seen behind guarding the Palace. Several more people approach, including three traditionally dressed women seen in CU, and bow to the Emperor's Palace. Shots of the Palace exterior, main gate and Nijubashi-bori Moat. Various shots - many CUs - of families with children and women in traditional dress walking in the Outer Garden (some wearing face masks to prevent the spread of infection). Not all seem particularly happy about being filmed - a few turn their backs to the camera. Tokyo street scenes. A street market with produce laid out on the pavement (Shimbashi?). US personnel buy goods. A calligrapher, probably a Japanese ex-serviceman, paints kanji characters for an American buyer. (01:56:00:00) A US soldier and his Japanese girlfriend (in traditional dress) walk along the street holding hands and smiling (marriage between Occupation personnel and Japanese citizens was banned by MacArthur until July 1947). They pose for the camera, the girl visibly chewing gum. The Ginza in ruins with stalls selling produce along the pavement's edge. CU sign, ' The League of Ginza Street Shops. Ginza Shopping Center Reconstruction. Construction Contractor Okura Doboku Co. Ltd.' Japanese civilians and US service personnel examine goods. A sign over boarded-up shops reads, 'New-Ginza'. A woman sweeps the pavement in front of a shop. CU of shop window selling women's clothes. A return to the Outer Garden of the Imperial Palace, with women walking in traditional dress. A Japanese couple are seen walking, the man wearing a mask. A brief scene of a (protest?) rally. Japanese men -apparently still wearing army fatigues - with banners milling around against a background of bombed buildings. A visit to the ports of Kyushu (Sasebo, Nagasaki and Kagoshima ) on board HMS Swiftsure (British Pacific Fleet). MLS of HMS Swiftsure as tender passes the ship. Shots of the land surrounding Sasebo and harbour from the tender. Ashore in the port of Sasebo, showing abandoned Japanese landing craft. Air-to-ground shots of Sasebo. The surrendered Japanese fleet - including three aircraft carriers - is seen below. A brief air-to-air shot of an accompanying Stinson L-5 Sentinel. Extensive air-to-ground coverage of Nagasaki showing: ruins of the city with the skeletal remains of the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works and the Nagasaki Medical School and Hospital (both were approximately 800 metres from the epicentre of the actual explosion, which was about 500 metres over Nagasaki), the flattened remains of the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works ( located between 1000 -1600 metres north of the epicentre), the devastation west of the Urakami-gawa and just north of the epicentre with the concrete remains of the Shiroyama School. The aircraft flies south along the west bank of the Urakami giving views over the epicentre itself and closer shots of the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works (from the opposite side than shown previously). The aircraft circles lower over the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works and heads north again, past the Ordnance Works. (02:03:50:00) MCU of HMS Swiftsure at anchor - slow pan showing ship, harbour and land. From a position probably situated in or near the Medical School and Hospital, the camera slowly pans across the epicentre of the blast. The only buildings in evidence being the concrete factory training school at the foot of the hills and the north end of the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works. This is repeated. The pan ends looking south down the length of the Mitsubishi Works and the devastated area in between. There is a brief CU shot of part of the Hospital exterior and a brief MCU taken within the grounds, showing two chimneys (one bent by the blast). Flash frame of a Japanese woman walking along a path with ruins on either side, carrying an umbrella as a sunshade. A newly-erected house, with work continuing to one side. In the foreground some kind of leaf vegetable is being grown. A man, with his hand in a sling and wearing army fatigues, leads a bullock and cart past ruins (he glances sideways at the camera in passing). A younger woman hurries past, looking at the camera, while an older man pulling a cart stops and stares. An old woman walks down a ruined street, briefly looking at the camera. A man in shorts stands amidst ruins of a house moving some of the wreckage. Two men - one carrying a large piece of wood on his shoulder - look towards the camera. Men with a bullock cart and hand cart walk along a road. The twisted metal framework of the gasworks can be seen behind. A Japanese soldier walks in the same direction carrying his kit. A view down the road in the other direction, as two horse-drawn carts pass by followed by men on foot. The old woman seen earlier walks by. The ruins of the gasworks are briefly seen again. Sign on a telegraph pole, 'Atomic Field'. ( The filming takes place within the immediate vicinity of the hypocentre, the ground point zero below where the bomb was exploded). Two parked lorries are seen in the background with men shovelling rubble from them and behind these, in the distance, the Shiroyama School. People are seen walking amongst the rubble. A clear view of the Shiroyama School is shown. The camera pans around the ruins showing a man with a wheelbarrow, a young couple walking along the road, the man - not in army fatigues - carrying a child on his back (the man looks directly at the camera as he passes). Four men in army fatigues walk along the road, one carrying a suitcase on his shoulder. Six open-backed lorries, full of British sailors from HMS Swiftsure wearing tropical uniform, pass by. A jeep follows up the rear. A British sailor walks through an undamaged torii, standing apparently untouched amidst the desolation. Three unsmiling Japanese children with an ex-soldier walk by, glancing at the camera. A view down a road, ruins on either side, with groups of Japanese men and women walking towards the camera, all carrying various items. CU sign on the ground amidst the ruins (in Japanese and English), 'Fortified zone. Photographing etc are strictly prohibited by order. War Office.' (02:08:00:00) A British sailor, standing amongst his group of colleagues, jokingly holds up the sign. MS of the group as they rummage around in the ruins, the Medical School and Hospital is seen in the background. Two Japanese women carrying possessions between them walk along a road towards the camera. The camera reverts to the British sailors rummaging, and one holds up a container with kanji characters down the side. Kagoshima. A pan of the coastline from aboard ship. A brief sequence on board shows bayonets with sheaths being distributed to the men (apparently, in the event of possible hostilities) Aboard the tender as it heads towards shore. HMS Swiftsure is seen in MLS. The tender enters the harbour of Kagoshima and attracts a great deal of interest from groups of watching Japanese (including children) as it comes ashore. The men disembark (with the bayonets that were distributed earlier, clearly seen hanging from their belts). MCUs of groups of curious Japanese who mill around the sailors and camera. Flash-frame of sailors walking as a group down a street with ruined buildings on either side. A sailor poses against a wall, with ruins in the foreground. A tram comes towards the camera (ruins in evidence on either side of the street) and children - one with a bicycle - look inquisitively in the same direction. A sailor and an armed British soldier lift a toppled postbox into the upright position. (02:10:50:00) Schoolgirls peer with amused interest from the intact windows of a school. They parade and assemble for the camera on the roof of the school, initially looking very serious, but gradually breaking out into giggles and laughter as the camera concentrates on them. One of them, in fits of laughter, links arms with a British sailor, who looks highly embarrassed. Pan from the school roof of extensive (fire-bomb?) damage to the city, with only concrete buildings still standing. William Courtenay (bare-headed) - the girls around him - addresses the camera, an armed Royal Marine stands to his left and a Japanese (male) teacher to his right. They all bow, the girls laughing. (02:13:00:00) Miyajima and Hiroshima December 7 1947. The Emperor's Mercedes-Benz is given a dusting, while a passive crowd awaits the arrival of Emperor Hirohito on the quayside on Miyajima Island. A single-funnelled steamer arrives at the dockside and Hirohito is seen standing alone on the covered deck. He disembarks and is escorted on to the quay by a large group of officials. The waiting crowd banzai ('may you live ten thousand years') and he raises his hat in acknowledgement. The Emperor's motorcade drives along streets lined with people, many of whom banzai as he passes. He arrives in the centre of Hiroshima and is greeted by a group of bowing children. He addresses the assembled Press and a band plays. Crowds of people (many children amongst them) line the roadside. The camera pans and behind the people, the Honkawa elementary school can be seen to the left, with the Hiroshima-ken Sangyo Shorei Kan - Prefectural Industry Promotion Building (Genbaku dome - the atomic dome) - in the distance across the confluence of the Hon-kawa and Motoyasu-gawa (rivers). MS of officials in morning suits. The camera pans again over the sea of faces and ends on a raised wooden stage from which the Emperor will speak. Hirohito, wearing an overcoat and hat, walks along a road lined either side with crowds, escorted by officials and many photographers. He climbs wooden steps leading to the stage ( the camera is behind him) and opposite in the distance, beyond the crowds, is the atomic dome. The crowd waves excitedly and Hirohito raises his hat in response (a photographer rushes up the steps behind him and is politely removed by an official). The Emperor addresses the people, speaking into a microphone (he can be seen reading from a sheet of paper). At the end of his speech he raises his hat several times, turning to face different parts of the crowd at each gesture. The crowd returns the salute numerous times (many hats can be seen being raised, together with some banzais). Hirohito leaves the stage. CU of serious-looking young children, apparently awaiting a visit from the Emperor. A Japanese nun bows to Hirohito as he arrives (at the orphanage/school?) He greets waiting officials and the children. The officials banzai as he leaves. CU of Hirohito in his Mercedes-Benz. A travelling shot from inside a following vehicle, showing crowds lining the streets and a motorcycle and sidecar escort. Hirohito arrives at a school and steps onto a low podium. The area in front of the platform is filled with many children, who banzai (encouraged by a photographer). The children then sing to the Emperor.
- Alternative Title: WILLIAM COURTENAY AMATEUR FILMS OF PACIFIC WAR 1943 - 1946] [Alternative Title]
- Colour: Colour
- Digitised: Yes
- Object_Number: MGH 4391
- Sound: Silent
- Access Conditions: NON-IWM
- Featured Period:
- Production Date: 1945
- Production Country: GB
- Production Details: Courtenay, William (Production individual)
- Personalities, Units and Organisations:Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (person)
- Keywords:
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour Sound format: Silent
- Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 1483 ft; Running time: 41 mins
- HD Media:Yes
- Link to IWM Collections page:
- Related IWM Collections Objects: