The Duits Collection holds a number of rare photos taken after the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This article briefly explains what makes these images so special. With one exception, it is very unlikely you have seen them before.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb obliterated Hiroshima. About 40% of the estimated 350,000 inhabitants died before the year ended. This is the story of a 19-year-old nurse who miraculously survived.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
A Japanese siege gun, known as an “Osaka Baby,” fires during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. War accelerated Osaka’s industrialization, driving a dramatic shift from light to heavy industry.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Interior of the Toyobo cotton mill in Osaka’s Sangenya area. Cotton mills played a crucial role in transforming Japan from a feudal into an industrialized nation. Toyobo started off this revolution.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Osaka Castle in 1929. There is no main castle tower, and the castle is surrounded by factories instead of trees. At this time, Osaka was a city of smoke.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
With this soft-focused photo of a confident young Japanese woman from the 1930s we take a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the Duits Collection.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
When the New Osaka Hotel opened in 1935, it was one of Japan’s finest hotels. It even boasted air-conditioned guest rooms, a world’s first. This rare pamphlet from its early days offers a fascinating peek inside.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Osaka’s Kitahama business district in the 1920s. New concrete buildings contrast sharply with nearby wooden architecture. It felt modern and vibrant and was praised as “magnificent urban beauty.”| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Osaka’s brand-new heart in the 1920s, the government district on Nakanoshima. The imposing building in front is Osaka City Hall, completed in 1921 (Taisho 10). From here a modern Osaka was created.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
After Japan’s first powered airplane flight in 1910, bird’s-eye view maps boomed. This essay explores a masterpiece of this genre, a 1924 map of Osaka.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
A young employee of a charcoal dealer carries packs of charcoal. An extensive charcoal infrastructure as well as ingenious methods kept the fires in Japan’s millions of hibachi burning.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Renowned American photographer Henry Strohmeyer (right) and his friend drinking Japanese tea while sitting close to hibachi, one wooden and the other metal. Hibachi came in countless forms and styles.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Two young Japanese women in a studio pose next to a hibachi. Women generally ruled this humble, but all-important heater.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
A young woman plays the shamisen while seated next to a hibachi (火鉢), a portable charcoal brazier. The metal chopsticks are for handling the charcoal, burning on a thick insulating layer of ash.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
A stunning New Year card for Gifu’s Great Exhibition of Rapid Japanese Progress of 1936. During the 1900s–1930s, many Japanese New Year cards were designed by top artists who created a golden age of card design.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
I discovered three extremely rare, unidentified, and unknown photos of Jūnisō from the 1860s. Read the story about this extraordinary find.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
This visual chronology uses rare images to show how Nishi-Shinjuku’s Jūnisō Pond changed between the 1860s and 1960s. Maps display the viewpoints.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Tank production at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1944. The Japanese militarism of the 1930s and 1940s initially benefited geisha districts like Jūnisō’s. But in the end it blasted most into oblivion.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Shinjuku in the early 1920s. A railway and population explosion turned it into a thriving modern city. Jūnisō, no longer rural and remote, now became a geisha district, delighting some, enraging others.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
An extremely rare photo of Jūnisō Pond in 1905 (Meiji 38). Teahouses and restaurants already crowd the pond’s banks and its natural beauty is no longer the main attraction.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Share the mission! Help save Japan’s unique visual heritage and safeguard it from being lost and forgotten.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
