Maynard Miller photograph album of occupied Japan

Source Collection

This digital collection comprises selected materials from the following archival collection at David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library:

Maynard Miller photograph album of occupied Japan 1946

Collection #RL.00897 | 0.50 Linear Feet (1 box); 1 volume

ABSTRACT
Maynard Miller was an African American Staff Sergeant with the 3540th and 3524th Quartermaster Truck Company, an African American company stationed in occupied Japan in 1946. Collection consists of a large photograph album, marked "property of Staff Sergeant Maynard Miller," containing approximately 200 photographs of African American soldiers in Tokyo and other locales in occupied Japan during 1946. Most of the photographs include captions with identification, nicknames, and commentary, including G.I. humor. Several photographs depict African American soldiers with Japanese girlfriends. Other images depict Army living quarters and equipment, clubs, Hirohito's palace, zoo animals, crowds on Japanese election day, and tourist destinations in and around Tokyo. Also included in the back of the album are carbon copies of two vividly eloquent typewritten letters complaining of discrimination -- one about Senator Bilbo and "the Negro problem" in Mississippi (1 p.) and another addressed to the Commanding General, Eighth Army, complaining of discriminatory practices barring African American soldiers from using the swimming pool (3 pp.). Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

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