These photos are part of the collection of Lt. Reinhart T. Kowallis taken in 1945 while he was stationed on
Okinawa and working as the leader of a photo interpretation team assigned to the
10th Army. Most of these photos have no names, some have dates and short comments on the back.
Captain Mac Jurry talking to some native Okinawan boys (
July 1945).
Young Okinawan girls carrying babies (July 1945).
Curious native Okinawan boys watching the soldiers of the
10th Army encampment (
July 1945).
More of the boys hanging around the army camp in
July 1945.
Two young Okinawan boys.
Okinawan boys in the 10th Army camp (July 1945).
An Okinawan woman and her son.
Typical load of wood carried by Okinawan woman.
Traveling the road with their loads of wood are a number of Okinawan women who seemed to do most of the work, at least the work of carrying heavy loads on their heads (July 1945).
Full baskets atop these women's heads. No indication on the photo what the women were carrying (July 1945).
Okinawan cart driven by native man with boy riding on the back.
This native woman and her two children seen in these two photos were found hiding in a cave to avoid the war raging around them (June 1945).
You can read more about the Battle of Okinawa on
Wikipedia,
PBS.org, and
History.com. Other good sites for information on the Battle of Okinawa during 1945 include:
And for post-war Okinawa, this is a very good site with lots of pictures from 1945 through 1972:
Remembering Okinawa
Note: Be sure to visit my other blogs on Okinawa in 1945:
Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed seeing that history.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Colleen. It's been fun to go through my dad's old photos.
ReplyDeleteHello. I don't know if you'll get this comment but am putting it here because I can't find an actual email address.
ReplyDeleteWe are a small publisher in Berkeley and are considering using a portion of one of the photos on your site on a book cover. Would like to know if that is possible. Ignore the linked address on this comment. Instead please reach me at sbpedit stonebridge.com. Thank you!
Thank you for creating this blog. I actually found a picture of my father in one of your photos. We recently found his full discharge and separation papers in my mother's estate ... prior to that I had been told that the copies of his military service had been destroyed in the Kansas City fire in the 70s. In his discharge papers it states that he was the chief-stock-control-clerk (Quartermaster Corp) in charge of 14 clerical and warehouse workers tasked with establishing the first PX in Naha, Okinawa as soon as the island was secured ... it was very exciting to see there is a picture of him in the PX as well as all the pictures that depict what it was like for him and the other soldiers at that period of their service.
ReplyDelete