Visual Materials

Toshio Anzai photograph albums

Description: Two photograph albums of approximately 400 black-and-white photographs taken by Major Toshio Anzai of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), during a training visit to the United States from August 1954 to January 1955. Anzai and two other JSDF personnel are seen training in medical rescue with the U.S. Army; socializing with American officers and their families at their homes; and sightseeing across the southern United States and Mexico. The photographs have captions written in English and Japanese, with more detailed descriptions and observations written in Japanese. The albums document the personal and professional interactions between Japanese and American military personnel during the Cold War alliance.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1954-1955
Call number: photCL 723
Creator: Anzai, Toshio(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from Asia Bookroom, January 2024.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
Rights: The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.
Find out more: View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab); View in the Online Archive of California(Opens in new tab)

Toshio Anzai photograph albums (2 volumes)

Visual Materials

Two photograph albums of approximately 400 black-and-white photographs taken by Major Toshio Anzai of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), during a training visit to the United States from August 1954 to January 1955. Anzai and two other JSDF personnel are seen training in medical rescue with the U.S. Army; socializing with American officers and their families at their homes; and sightseeing across the southern United States and Mexico. The photographs have captions written in English and Japanese, with more detailed description and observations written in Japanese. The albums document the personal and professional interactions between Japanese and American military personnel during the Cold War alliance.

photCL 723

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Photograph album of California with soldiers at training camp

Visual Materials

A photograph album compiled by an unidentified person containing snapshots of San Francisco, San Diego, and mountain scenery (presumably the High Sierras). Views show soldiers in group portraits and in formation at a training camp (possibly the Presidio in San Francisco?); camping in the wilderness; a large dam; Chutes Zoological Promenade and Cliff House in San Francisco; and one view of people riding a sightseeing trolley in San Diego. A young man and woman are in several views. One loose photograph shows a lighted night street scene by San Francisco photographer W. E. Worden. There are no identifications in the album.

photCL 345

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F. C. Thompson photograph album

Visual Materials

An album of photographs taken by American businessman F. C. Thompson, documenting his time living in Yokohama, Japan, from 1920 to 1921. Thompson managed the Dollar Steamship Lines office in Yokohama, and is seen experiencing some local customs and socializing mostly with other Western men and women, who are identified in handwritten captions. They are seen at various locations including the Grand Hotel, the Oriental Palace Hotel, the Yacht and Rowing Club, and visiting nearby rural areas. Many images depict street scenes, architecture and people in Japan, including scenes of female laborers, agricultural crops and workers, and "elite" women traveling in hand-carried slings. Thompson is seen joining a Japanese motorcycle club, at a rugby match, and on vacation in the countryside in a traditional Japanese house. Some images depict the ships and crews of the Dollar Steamship Lines and Pacific Mail Steamship Company (which would eventually merge into one company). The photographs are accompanied by detailed captions identifying locations.

photCL 645

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Mexico travel photograph album

Visual Materials

A photograph album of tourists sightseeing in Mexico, including Mazatlan, Ruiz (Nayarit), Mexico City, Guadalupe, Xochimilco, Cuernevaca, and Tasco. Images show street scenes, markets, churches and monasteries, a bullfight, the pyramids at Teotihuacan, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes, and the Desert of the Lions (Desierto de los Leones).

photCL 370

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Mary Louise Ainsworth photograph album of Conrad Aiken's summer school

Visual Materials

An album of snapshot photographs of writer Conrad Aiken, his wife Mary (Hoover) Aiken, and visitors at their house "Forty-Nine Doors" in Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Aikens held a summer writing and painting school at their house, and these were most likely the participants in 1941. Images include people socializing, painting at the beach, the house exterior, and garden. Handwritten notes titled "Summer '41" identify people in the photographs: Conrad and Mary Aiken, Mary Louise Ainsworth, Miriam Coletti, Charles Hamilton, Paul Bishop, Rosamond Pierce, and Paul Metcalf.

photCL 702

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Photograph albums of a Japanese businessman's trip to the United States

Visual Materials

Two albums of photographs taken by a Japanese businessman of his trip to the United States in the early 1930s. The man appears to have been Yaroku Katayama, who was engaged in export trade in the 1930s and 1940s, and appears in a few photographs, including one aboard the passenger ship Taiyo Maru with Japanese parliamentarian Mitsuhashi Shiroji. The two small albums have many handwritten captions in Japanese, and a few in English. The date 1932 is written in two captions in both albums. The small black-and-white snapshots depict street scenes and scenery in Niagara Falls, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Chicago, and in Arizona, where he traveled by train on the Santa Fe Railway. One of the albums is primarily of scenes in Hawaii, especially Honolulu, where he stopped en route to his return to Japan.

photCL 681

Toshio Anzai photograph albums

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Toshio Anzai photograph albums (2 volumes)

Photograph album of California with soldiers at training camp

F. C. Thompson photograph album

Mexico travel photograph album

Mary Louise Ainsworth photograph album of Conrad Aiken's summer school

Photograph albums of a Japanese businessman's trip to the United States