Personal collections of Americans who served in Allied Occupied Japan supplement the Japanese print publications in the Gordon W. Prange Collection. They document the experiences, both personal and professional, of Americans who lived and worked in early post-World War II Japan, a nation devastated by war and in the process of democratization and demilitarization.
JULIUS BASSIN PHOTOGRAPHS & MOVIES
Julius (Jules) Bassin (1914 - 2009) was an American lawyer, member of the Foreign Service, and State Department representative. He served in several capacities during the Occupation of Japan and it’s immediate aftermath. In 1945, he became a member of General Douglas MacArthur's legal staff in Tokyo, negotiating the Treaty of Peace with Japan. After he left the Army in 1946, he served as Chief of the Law Division of GHQ/SCAP until the end of the Occupation in 1952. He then joined the State Department and became the Legal Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
HOLDINGS: Five photograph albums containing a total of 1,019 photographs, as well as documents, postcards, greeting cards, and invitation cards, from the years 1915-1965. One family movie and a portion of a documentary in which Julius Bassin is interviewed.
USE: The photograph albums have been digitized and can be found in the University of Maryland Libraries Digital Collections. The family movie and portion of the documentary film may only be viewed onsite in Hornbake LIbrary North.
In 1947, Lois Beno (1922 - 2016) and her two children joined her husband in Kurume, Japan. He was in the Air Force, but on loan to the Army, and was in charge of a Counter Intelligence Corps (the CIC) unit in Fukuoka. The family initially lived in Kurume and later moved to Fukuoka. In the interview, Beno discusses housing for military dependents, food, sanitation, clothing, transportation, entertainment, and her travels throughout Japan.
HOLDINGS: 32 photographs, one interview
USE: The collection has been digitized, but it can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection and request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
MARK M. BIEGEL PAPERS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
Mark Biegel was an Information and Education Officer of the 21st Infantry of the United States Army stationed in Japan during the Occupation. He received the Army Commendation Ribbon for the success of the information program under his supervision for the 21st Infantry’s publication, The Diamond News, and for his supervision of the Unit College.
USE: The collection has been digitized, but it can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection, see this inventory. To request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
SEE ALSO: Mark Biegel Collection (AFC/2001/001/72289), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Biegel goes through the photo album with the interviewer.
EMERSON CHAPIN PHOTOGRAPHS AND SLIDES
Emerson Chapin (1920 - 2003) was a longtime New York Times editor and foreign correspondent. He served in Japan during the Occupation in both military and civilian roles. In late September 1945, his division, the 98th Infantry, was sent to Japan as part of the Occupation forces. Chapin was stationed in Osaka and worked on a paper produced for the division. Discharged in 1946, he returned that same year to Japan to work as a civilian in the Civil Information and Education Section (CIES) of General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers doing press analysis of magazines. When CIES was disbanded, Chapin did similar work for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service (ATIS). He left Japan on July 10, 1950.
HOLDINGS: 404 slides and 236 photographs
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection and request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
SEE ALSO: An interview with Emerson Chapin in the Marlene J. Mayo Oral Histories.
Kenneth E. Colton (1913-1995) was a scholar of modern Japanese politics, whose interest in Japan began during his service for General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ SCAP) during the Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952. In January 1946, he began work in G-2, Research and Analysis Section of the Civil Intelligence Section (CIS), researching Japanese political parties. He later joined the Civil Historical Section. His tenure with GHQ SCAP ended in 1952 when the Occupation of Japan came to a close, but his interest in Japanese politics continued. He taught at Sophia University, the International Christian University (ICU), American University and Kent State University.
HOLDINGS: Correspondence, clippings, reports, photographs, manuscripts and memoranda related to Japanese political parties and figures, with a focus on the period 1945-1955.
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection and request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections (click on Inventories/Additional Information to see the item-level inventory).
SEE ALSO: An interview with Kenneth Colton is in the Marlene J. Mayo Oral Histories.
Owen Cunningham (July 16, 1900 - February 1987) was one of several Americans who served as defense attorneys for Class A Japanese war criminals tried at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The defendants were also represented by Japanese attorneys.
HOLDINGS: Legal documents related to the trial of General Hiroshi Oshima (Japanese Ambassador to Germany, 1938-1939 and 1941-1945, and notes, articles, correspondence and portions of a manuscript that appears to have been written by Cunningham.
USE: This collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection see this inventory. To request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
SEE ALSO: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East Digital Collection at the University of Virginia.
Lt. Colonel Victor E. Delnore (1914 - 1998) commanded the Allied Occupation Forces in Nagasaki Prefecture from 1946 to 1949. As head of the Nagasaki Military Government Team, Delnore supervised early efforts to rebuild the atomic bomb-ravaged city of Nagasaki and to restore peace and stability throughout the prefecture.
HOLDINGS: Policy statements, directives, speeches (most notably his 1948 address at the historic first Nagasaki ceremony commemorating victims of the atomic bombing), personal albums, photographs, letters, newspaper articles, and documentary films. The albums and several of the other items were farewell gifts to Delnore upon his departure from Nagasaki.
USE: The majority of the collection has been digitized and can be found in the University of Maryland Libraries Digital Collections. The remaining items can only be used onsite in Hornbake LIbrary North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection, see this inventory with links to the digital objects. [Note: Additional materials acquired on April 24, 2019 are not included in this inventory. For information about these materials, contact us.]
George Peter Demeroukas (1930 - 2012) was a second-generation Greek immigrant from Chicago, Illinois. He was drafted into the military at the onset of the Cold War and after the Occupation of Japan. He was stationed with the Japan Signal Battalion of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. to work on military radio broadcast and telecommunication stations, serving in the country from February 1955 to March 1956. While there, Demeroukas collected numerous memorabilia, wrote letters to his family, took black and white photographs, and produced color slides to document his personal travels throughout Japan. After leaving active duty, he received two medals - National Defense Services and Sharpshooter (Carbine), and later worked as a technical illustrator drafting radio and television schematic diagrams.
HOLDINGS: 728 black and white photographs, 222 color photographic slides, 10 photographic negative packets, 15 photographic negative film canisters, 12 documents, 2 books, and 66 journal entries included in the finding aid.
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection and request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
SEE ALSO: The exhibition announcement A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Connecting Through Canon in Post-Occupation Japan.
John R. Harold (1914 - 1995), first as a Labor Officer and later as Acting Chief of the Labor Relations Branch of the Labor Division of the Supreme Command Allied Powers (SCAP), was actively involved in the enactment and implementation of the Labor Relations Adjustment Law and in labor education in Japan during the Allied Occupation.
HOLDINGS: An overview of Occupation labor policy as documented in memoranda, correspondence, reports, news dispatches, newspaper articles, pamphlets and journals. Harold used these papers to write his autobiography, Living a Life of Social Significance, which is included in the collection.
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection, see this inventory. To request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
ALBERT W. HILBERG ATOMIC BOMB CASUALTY COMMISSION COLLECTION
The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) was founded in 1946 by President Truman to research the long-term effects on survivors from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Albert W. Hilberg, M.D. (1922 - 2007) worked as a physician with the ABCC.
HOLDINGS:48 photographs of Hiroshima before and after the atomic bombing and 41 printed reports on the bombings
USE: The photographs have been digitized and can be found in the University of Maryland Libraries Digital Collections. The reports can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the photographs, see this inventory (with links to the digital objects). To browse the reports, see this inventory. To request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
Charles L. Kades (1906 -1996), Deputy Director of the Government Section of SCAP during the Occupation of Japan, was appointed chief of the 24-member steering committee charged by General Douglas MacArthur to draft a democratic constitution for the Japanese. The constitution took effect on May 3, 1947 and continues to be in effect to this day.
HOLDINGS: His papers are divided into two parts: Part A begins with the tentative revision of the Meiji Constitution of Joji Matsumoto (January 4, 1946) and concludes with the U.S. Department of State publication of the final version of the Constitution of Japan (effective May 3, 1947). Japanese and English versions of most drafts are included here. Part B includes memoranda, committee minutes, letters, check sheets, and an imperial message regarding the revision of the Japanese constitution.
USE: The Kades papers have been digitized and are available through the Internet Archive. The microfilm of this collection is located offsite in UMCP Severn Library. It may be used in Hornbake Library North. To request the microfilm, visit the University of Maryland Libraries online catalog.
SEARCH: To browse the collection, see this index and this inventory of additional materials acquired in April 1998. To request materials, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
SEE ALSO: An interview with Charles Kades in the Marlene J. Mayo Oral Histories, the Charles L. Kades papers at Amherst College, an oral history with Charles Kades at Columbia University, and the Papers of Mrs. Charles Kades at the MacArthur Memorial.
Mead Smith Karras (1922-2010) served as an economist for the Labor Division of the Allied Occupation Forces in Japan from 1946 to 1949. She wrote a monthly report on labor developments and worked with U.S. and Japanese officials to develop and implement Occupation policies on problems affecting women and children in the work force, such as the organization of a Women’s and Minor’s Bureau, participation of women in unions, and enforcement of the Japanese Fair Labor Standards Act.
HOLDINGS: 11 posters, 27 letters, 154 questionnaires, approximately 2,200 photographs, 3 kamishibai, and other items.
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection and request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
Mary Koehler served in the Allied Occupation of Japan as secretary to the Chief of the Forestry Division, Natural Resources Section, General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, 1945 - 1949. Soon after her arrival, she purchased a Canon camera at the Post Exchange (PX) and took many photographs documenting her experiences in Japan and the life of the Japanese around her. The collection includes photographs of a trip to Nikko, the Emperor and Empress on Arbor Day 1948, duck-netting on the Imperial Grounds, ama divers, and a visit to meet Kōkichi Mikimoto, founder of the eponymous luxury pearl company.
HOLDINGS: 540 color slides, 25 of which are glass slides. 160 of the slides are in two 80-slide carousels that were used for a talk entitled, The Japan I Knew – 1945-1949, by Mary Koehler. Also included in the collection is the narration for the talk by Koehler herself on cassette tape, as well as hand-written and type-written transcriptions.
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection and request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
ROBERT P. SCHUSTER PHOTOGRAPHS & NEGATIVES
Robert Schuster worked as a medical equipment repair specialist for the Allied Forces during the Occupation of Japan. This collection documents his experience during that period.
HOLDINGS: 738 photographs, the vast majority of which date from 1946 in Japan
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection, see this inventory. To request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
Roy W. Simonson (September 7, 1908 - November 2, 2008) was a scientist and professor who studied soil across the United States and on islands in the Western Pacific. He was educated at the North Dakota Agricultural College, where he received his Bachelor of Science in 1934, and at the University of Wisconsin, where he received his doctorate in 1938. He taught at Iowa State College from 1938 to 1943, when he took a new position of Soil Correlator for the United States Department of Agriculture Division of Soil Survey. Following World War II, Dr. Simonson worked for the Military Geology Unit to map soils on islands in the Western Pacific. Dr. Simonson spent the rest of his career at the Division of Soil Survey until his retirement in 1973. He occasionally taught a course on soil genesis as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland until relocating to Oberlin, Ohio, in 1993, where he resided until his death in 2008. This collection consists of Kodachrome photographic slides of Dr. Simonson's 1947-1948 trip to Japan, Okinawa, Palau, and Guam.
HOLDINGS: 342 color photographic slides
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection and request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections (click on Inventories/Additional Information to see the item-level inventory).
SEE ALSO: The Roy Walter Simonson Papers at the USDA National Agricultural Library and Simonson, Bruce. “Roy W. Simonson: A Century as a Soil Scientist.” Soil Survey Horizons, 49 no. 3 (Fall 2008): 63-67.
Leora Smith (1921 - 2017) joined her husband in Japan in 1947. He was on leave from the Air Force to the Counter Intelligence Corps. He arrived in Japan in 1946 and was stationed in Yokohama. Dependent housing was just being built in Yokohama at that time, so Smith and her husband were temporarily housed in the Fujiya Hotel. In the interview, she describes the hotel and the dependent housing in which they later lived. Smith returned to the United States, but soon came back to Japan — this time she served in the Department of Army, Civilian (DAC) as an Administrative Secretary in a Civil Affairs Office in Kure. She was an avid photographer, who captured the everyday life of the Japanese, such as children in the classroom and the harvesting of rice. The photographs were taken in various locations, including Nagano, Odawara, Kamakura, Kure, and Mount Fuji.
HOLDINGS: 46 photographs and one interview
USE: The interview with Leora Smith is in the Marlene J. Mayo Oral Histories. The photographs have been digitized, but can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection of photographs, see this inventory. To request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
Donald Swann (1926-1964) served in the U.S. Army from 1944-1946. He was posted in Tokyo and Hachinohe, Japan, during the Allied Occupation of Japan. While he was in service, he sent letters, photographs, and postcards regularly to his family, describing in details about his life while serving in the U.S. Army during the very early days of Occupation of Japan.
HOLDINGS: 84 photographs, 135 letters, and several postcards, dated 1944 to 1946.
USE: The collection can only be used onsite in Hornbake Library North.
SEARCH: To browse the collection and request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
The papers of Justin Williams, Sr. (1906 - 2002) provide an unequalled view of parliamentary, political and constitutional change in Japan after World War II. As Chief of the Legislative Division, he interacted with key Japanese politicians and Government Section officials who were intimately involved in making crucial decisions for Japan between 1945 and 1952. The Legislative Division maintained liaison with the Cabinet, the Diet, and the political parties, kept SCAP sections informed of pending legislation in the Diet, oversaw election campaigns and practices, and played a major role in effecting parliamentary change in the new National Diet. Williams reported directly to Major General Courtney Whitney and Colonel Charles L. Kades, the two most important Government Section officials. (George William Ware, Committee on East Asian Libraries Bulletin, October 1983, No. 72, 2).
HOLDINGS: 21 Linear Feet (54 letter-sized boxes); 8 Items : Three books, one newsletter, two albums, two booklets
USE: The microfilm of this collection is located offsite in UMCP Severn Library. It may be used in Hornbake Library North. To REQUEST the microfilm, visit the UMD Libraries online catalog.
SEARCH: To browse the collection, see this inventory. To request items, go to the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.
