Tokyo Weekender August 2016

As a child growing up in the state
of Mississippi, Bridges recalls the
photograph albums as things that
were always around, windows
into other lives and other times
that became strangely familiar. It was only after
the death of his father several years ago that
Bridges began to see the photos from a different
perspective. “I had scanned them a long time
before, and had my own digital versions for
some time. A few years after he died, though, I
ran across them and started wondering about
the families that the photos originally belonged
to. I’ve often wondered how I could reconnect
families with them but none of my efforts were
ever successful.”
Of course, the first question that comes to
mind when looking at what must have been
pictures of sons, brothers, fathers, long-lost loves
or wives is “How?” How would an MP come into
possession of books of photos like these? Bridges
hazards a guess as to how, and one reason why:
“I’ve always assumed that in post-war Japan people
were probably selling everything just to eat and
maybe this was a collection he came across. He
was an amateur photographer later and I think
this was an early indication of his interest in that.”
The same possibility is also suggested by
Professor Hiraku Shimoda of Waseda University,
when we asked him to speculate about how
Bridges would have brought the photos back to
the US many years later. “Many GIs who were a
part of the US Occupation sought out all kinds of
souvenirs during their tour of duty in Japan. As a
result, ordinary, everyday goods of all sorts were
put up for sale. So I’m not at all surprised that
family photos and such were among the wares.”
Shimoda adds that it is still possible to buy
personal snapshots and wedding photos that date
back to the postwar period from vendors around
the country.
We’ve decided to publish a selection of
these photos in our August issue, then, for a few
reasons. One, like Bridges, we hope that there
might be a chance to reunite some families with
these pictures. Another is that they offer a chance
to think about experiences of these people who
lived just a few generations back. And finally, as
this the time of year when Japan remembers the
events that led up to the end of World War II, we
would like to reflect on the lives of the people
– and perhaps imagine the spirit of the country –
that we can see in these frozen moments.
You can see the rest of the photo album at tinyurl.
com/photosfromWWII
TOKYO WEEKENDER | AUGUST 2016 | 31