COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE PACIFIC CAMPAIGN AND AMERICAN OCCUPATION...

PROPERTY SOLD BY BONHAMS
COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE PACIFIC CAMPAIGN AND AMERICAN OCCUPATION OF JAPAN BY WILLIAM CONRAD REED, C.1944
Bound in two albums, one bound in dark brown leather, title hand-painted on upper cover ("Snaps") with an illustration of a black dog playing with a yellow bird, the photographs include battle scenes in Okinawa, civilian survivors,, several of the battle for Saipan, base life, a captured Kaitan suicide torpedo, an Ohka kamikaze plane,the surrender signing ceremony on the Missouri, and pictures of Japan under American occupation.
The second album has wooden boards, lettered "Samoa, Saipan, Okinawa" written in black ink on the inner cover, the photographs are of preparations for battle, scenes of fighting and the aftermath in Saipan and Okinawa, various pictures of the natives of Samoa, Saipan and Okinawa at work and leisure.

Over the course of the Allied island-hopping campaign of 1943-1945, US servicemen came into contact with Japanese civilians, as well as encountering the numerous different peoples of the Pacific, who were almost unknown to the average American. Many chose to document this through photography. A vivid collection of wartime and post-war photography.

Leather volume: 10 x 13 in (25 x 33 cm) wooden volume: 7 x 10 in (18 x 25 cm) (2)