HOME MOVIES: OCCUPIED JAPAN

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1960s

Format: 16mm

Description: One of a series of extraordinary home movies shot in Occupied Japan immediately after WWII, this film shows a visit to one of the ski resorts located in Nagano, Japan. 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 with shots from a moving train and then shows the Shinshū-Nakano Station (:33) in the city of Nakano, Nagano, Japan. At 1:27, male and female visitors board a small trolley car and are whisked to the ski resort. The rest of the film shows Anglo tourists at the ski resort, which includes a ski lift (visible at 2:50). This is probably the Shiga Kogen Maruike, which had lifts as early as 1946, although we're not sure.

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