well behaved children of the corn

An elderly lady, who is an old family friend of Mr You’s, gave me a couple of rolls of old transparency films that were taken by her 1st husband in the 1940’s. He was a QC in the war trials in Japan after the 2nd World War. He had lots of photo’s from this time, but apparently he had one very rare one of the Japanese Emperor at the time, Emperor Tojo, whom I’m told it was forbidden to photograph.

I love old photographs, and have a small collection and loads of books. These were a real treat. I didn’t see the Emperor, but there are lots of wonderful photos of their experience in what was obviously a very unfamiliar land.

Taking a holiday in a foreign land (or having a baby I’m told) always reignites the photographer in people. Snapping shots of buildings, shops, merchandise, clothing, food, etc, that are all strange and new to what we know as commonplace.

I remember my sister and I being terrified as young children being surrounded by a busload of snap-happy Japanese tourists. We both had very fair skin and very light blonde hair, not to mention my little sister was the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen. They accosted us (in a friendly excited way) at a lookout and took turns having their photo taken with us. Our Dad had to calm us down and explain why they were so interested in us. (It made sense to us, our Mum would often point out people of other nationalities and say “Look, aren’t they beautiful!”).

I learnt a few things that day. I learnt I could never be a celebrity, and I learnt how lovely it is that different cultures think of one another as beautiful.
I’m aware this isn’t always the case, but it should be.

Anyway, these photos are so interesting. Not only are they a snapshot of another culture and the wonder of someone experiencing it for the first time, but also of a time gone by. There are more to look at here.