WENGERT (Leo L.),
ERKE (Herman E.) &
[RODGERS (Frank C.) photographer.]
Pictorial Arrowhead - Occupation of Japan by Second Marine Division.
September 1945: America's arrival in Nagasaki
WENGERT (Leo L.),
ERKE (Herman E.) &
[RODGERS (Frank C.) photographer.]
Pictorial Arrowhead - Occupation of Japan by Second Marine Division.
An album documenting the dawn of Occupation.
The 2nd Marine Division of the US military was the first to enter Nagasaki on September 23rd 1945. The present album of images records the arrival of the marines in Nagasaki, first pitching up in a destroyed Mitsubishi factory before moving to school buildings that had survived the bombing. The images show Japanese military hardware (bombs, tanks, submarines) found abandoned as well as the process of disarming Japan and the repatriation of Japanese soldiers. This is followed by images of the ‘Valley of Death’, where the Atomic Bomb had exploded, but overall the captions are light-hearted and relaxed and there is a five plate section on women and kids.
The last page states: ‘This pictorial booket of the 2d Marine Division, Commanded by Major General LeRoy P. Hunt [whose portrait appears on the first plate] USMC has been published under the supervision of the Division Special Services Section with the assistance of the Division Photographic and Reproduction Sections. Individual credit to Pfc. Leo L. Wengert and Pfc. Herman E. Erke.’
Uncommon.
