Okayama Park, Japan, 1946

After a long and relatively turbulent history, by the time of the War Okayama had become one of the most important places in western Japan for transportation and education. When World War II began, Okayama city had a Japanese Army base camp. Strategic, incendiary bombing raids on Japan began in June 1944 and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. Thus, on June 29, 1945, the city was attacked by the US Army air force with incendiary bombs. Almost all the city was burned, and in the fire storm that ensued more than 1,700 people were killed. Overall Okayama suffered terrible damage in the war, losing more than 12,000 households.

My father visited the city in 1946; perhaps for intelligence gathering but equally possibly on leave with fellow officers. The above image shows Okayama after the 1945 air raid. Seeing this makes me wonder about a photograph labelled by father as "Hiroshima"; it is not a familiar image of Hiroshima and I wonder if he in fact took it when he visited Okayama? This might explain why there are figures that can clearly be seen walking in the streets and cycling on the nearer side of the bridge. This is my father's photograph below:

Apparently the park in Okayama (or at least part of it) remained intact and the following pictures show a number of scenes from it. The first labelled: "Ice cream stand":

The final three pictures show various scenes from the park (all labelled Okayama Park).