Tokyo Fall of 1945
Ihei Kimura
Shunkichi Kikuchi
Tokyo Fall of 1945. Photographs by Ihei Kimura and Shunkichi Kikuchi (uncredited). Bunka-Sha, Tokyo, 1946. First edition. Unpaged. 68 pages. Octavo. Small size. Stiff illustrated wrappers. With the dust jacket. Sepia toned reproductions. Captions in English and Japanese.
The poetic foreword to this important record of post-war Tokyo states that the city is wounded after the war's end, but survives, with heart. Photos picture scenes of bombing destruction, but also of baseball games and people in streets. The pathetic, patched together shops are juxtaposed with cabarets along the Ginza, vegetable markets and bored GIs waiting for something to happen. Not incidentally, the book also constitutes and interesting sort of 'baseline' for the practice of documentary photography at a crucial juncture in Japan's history.
Good plus. A very fragile book. Stapled wraps a little discolored at the edges. The dust jacket is complete with light wear. Wear along the spine and edges. Few creases and scratches. Internally still quite nice. Images bright and clean.
Scarce.