HOME MOVIES: POST WWII OCCUPIED JAPAN

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1948

Format: 16mm

Description: Shot by an unknown American who was part of the U.S. occupation forces in post-war Japan, this home movie shows a visit to the countryside and with the Sakiyama Family. It also shows part of a wedding ceremony, a fruit and vegetable farm, the process of replanting and harvesting rice, and the preparation to what's presumably Farmer's New Year (April 1st). It is believed this film was shot because of, and contains images of, Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger at the end. Eichelberger was a highly decorated officer who commanded the Eighth United States Army in the Southwest Pacific Area during World War II. He retired at the end of 1948, so this film predates 1949 and probably dates to 1946-47. 0:09 Plum trees in bloom at a farm garden farm 0:21 Cherry trees in bloom, whether normal cherry or decorative ones ; rows of tea bushes in the background 1:05 Card: Bride and attendants in motorcycle cart  1:11 Bride,wearing a typical Shinto wedding katsura headdress and a formal dark-colored furisode kimono (white and light-colored patternless kimonos being reserved for mourning periods in Shinto, to the exception of the rarely-worn shiromuku) 1:45 Bride seen here in a red irouchikake kimono (one of the two or several kimonos worn during the ceremony) 1:49 Back to the furisode attire (later shot probably) 2:07 Card  : Pouring, Japanese method of fertilizing  2:14 Spreading nightsoil and kitchen compost pit- based fertilizer while another worker tills the soil in preparation for cabbage and various other greens. 2:42 Plowing with a buffalo-driven plough. 2:55 Manual backhoe plowing 3:17 Grouping and cutting the rice shoots into uniform squares, at a nursery field, for replanting.3:50 Card: Transplanting rice  3:58 Preparing the wet paddy 4:16 Valley rice farm landscape, surrounded by hills 4:40 Card: Harvesting rice  4:46 Grown rice stalks being cut with hand sickles and knives 5:35 Closeup 6:16 Threshed rice grass and stalks spread out on racks for drying for later basket and tatami straw-mat-weaving 6:26 Former soldiers, or men in surplus Japanese Imperial Army uniforms, threshing rice in a wooden foot-operated drum-type rice thresher 7:19 Crank-operated rice husk winnowing machine, the older man is showing how to operate it7:26 Flailing rice 7:38 Rice thresher, again, men in schoolcaps and traditional clothing threshing rice 7:54 A true rarity, a fire engine motorcycle 8:07 Card: Housecleaning in preparation for the New Year  8:14 Beating the dust out of the floor tatami mats 8:35 Card: The Sakiyama family  » 8:38-end of the movie The family wearing western clothing and kimonos, with Gen. Eichelberger and his wife.

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