Occupied Kyoto, 1945–1952

Allied forces were stationed in Japan from 1945, following the end of the Pacific War, to 1952. During this period, GHQ/SCAP (General Headquarters/Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) worked on reforming Japan's political, economic, cultural, and social systems. For this purpose, thousands of officers, soldiers and civilians (450,000 at the peak) came to live in bases and cities across Japan, where they variously encountered and interacted with Japanese locals.

12,000 soldiers of the 6th Army, U.S. Pacific Command entered Kyoto on September 25, 1945. The 6th Army used the Daiken Building (now Cocon Karasuma) as their headquarters, and also requisitioned most of the Western-style public buildings in the city as offices and quarters: the main facilities of the 6th Army are marked in red on the Sight-Seeing Map of Kyoto (1946) below. In addition, many Western-style private residences were taken over as well. This lasted until April 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.

Paying particular attention to the role of tourism in the Allied Occupation, this online resources explores some of the main developments and key sites of "occupied Kyoto" from 1945 to 1952. 

Kyoto started tourism-service preparations even before the U.S. military moved into the city, an exceptional response to defeat that was not carried out in any other Japanese city. 

On September 12, 1945, a Conference on Souvenirs for Foreign Guests (Gaikyaku Muke Miyagehin Kyōgikai 外客向け土産品協議会) was held in Kyoto. Attended by representatives from Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto City, and Kyoto's traditional craft companies, the conference decided to offer discounts and preferential rationing of materials for foreign guests (during and immediately after the war, supplies were regulated and rationed by the government). In addition, department stores such as Daimaru and Fujii Daimaru set up special sections aimed at selling souvenirs to visiting soldiers (Kyoto Shinbun, September 13, 1945 and October 2, 1945).

Kyoto City hired clerks and interpreters, and established tourist information centers in front of Kyoto station, Karasuma Shijō, Gion Ishidanshita, Kawaramachi Sanjō, Heian Jingū shrine, Fukakusa Fujimori station, Daimaru Department Store, and Momoyama station. These helped distribute English-language maps and sold train tickets. Kyoto City also installed English-language signs at thirty-three sites in the downtown area and at tourist attractions (see the picture to the right), and ordered temples and shrines to install English interpretation boards (Kyōto Shinbun, September 18, 1945, September 23, 1945, September 26, 1945, and October 5, 1945).

Also, the city government arranged tours for all soldiers stationed in Kyoto. Tours departed from the Kangyō-kan (now Miyako Messe), where soldiers were billeted, and took them to Higashi-honganji temple, Nijo castle, the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and other historical sites, temples, and shrines (Kyōto Shinbun, October 10, 1945).

Why were tourist services like the above established in Kyoto during the Occupation? 

In Tokyo, Yokohama, and other places in Japan, there had been cases of physical violence, and theft and destruction of property, carried out by U.S. soldiers. Often, after such incidents, souvenirs were provided to soldiers in an attempt to build friendlier relations and prevent similar problems occuring again in the future. In the case of Kyoto, occupying forces arrived relatively late, allowing the city to prepare in advance, knowing what had been happening in other cities. 

Furthermore, Kyoto had suffered relatively little damage from air raids during the war and the city was able to effectively restart inbound tourist services, which had been developed since the late nineteenth century (see "Inbound Tourism, 1872– 1941"), in order to maintain public order during the Occupation.

Many of the Allied generals, civilians, and journalists who were in Japan during the occupation visited Kyoto for recreational purposes. Kyoto had been a major inbound tourist destination before the war, of course, and historical records suggest that visitors came away with positive impressions of the city precisely because its landscape and people seemed relatively unchanged. 

Below are two quotations from contemporary travelers to Kyoto. The first is from Popcorn on the Ginza (1946) by Lucy Herndon Crockett, an American Red Cross worker who wrote about her experiences in Japan. The second is from  Margaret Parton, who came to Japan as a correspondent for the Herald Tribune and was interviewed for the Japanese travel magazine Tabi in November 1946.

Kyoto Branch Office Building of the Kansai Electric Power Company

The Kyoto Dento office building — an eight-story modernist structure at the north exit of Kyoto station — was constructed in 1937. It is still in use today as the Kyoto branch office of Kansai Electric Power Company. This facility was responsible for supplying electricity to the Kinki region and, during the Occupation, it was used as a space to recharge the bodies and minds of military generals and other residents and visitors from the United States.

During the Occupation, the U.S. Army opened rest and recreation facilities for soldiers in various places. In this case, the Kyoto Dento office building was used as the Kyoto Recreation and Leave Center ("Recreation Center" in the Sight-Seeing Map of Kyoto above). The building contained a library, ping-pong and billiard room, and various other recreational facilities; the main selling point was its easy access to tourist attractions (Kokuritsu Toshokan Kensei Shiryō Shitsu).

In 1947, the hotel was reopened as the Rakuyo Hotel, under the direct management of the Japanese Government Trade Bureau to accommodate international business travelers and tourists. However, the majority of guests were, as before, occupying military officers and their families who had traveled to Kyoto (Kyōto-shi Shichō Kōshitsu Tōkei-ka, Kyōto-shi seitōkei nenkan, 1951).

During the Korean War, Japan became a popular R&R destination for U.S. and U.N. forces. Many of the generals and soldiers who visited Kyoto used the facilities at the Rakuyo Hotel. This influx also affected movements of Japanese residents of the city. "Panpans" (prostitutes) and pimps began to hang out in front of the Rakuyo Hotel, and Japanese journalists reported this as a bitter reminder that a state of occupation seemed to continue even after 1952 (Kyōto shinbun, February 6, 1953).

Kawashima Orimono

Kawashima Orimono (now Kawashima Orimono Selkon) is a Nishijin textile company founded in 1843. The company is known for its kimono, obi, festival curtains, and interior decoration fabrics, many of which have been used around the world, including World Expositions such as the Chicago Exposition and the Paris Exposition. Kawashima Orimono started manufacturing Japanese fabrics and curtain fabrics by developing the Nishijin weaving method after examining European textile factories during the Meiji period. 

With such a broad vision, Kawashima Orimono found its way to postwar reconstruction through a unique route. While the use of raw silk was controlled by SCAP, aggravating conditions in the sector, Kawashima Orimono received orders for about 35% of the curtains, lace curtains, pile woven sheets, and other fabrics used in facilities and homes for the occupying forces throughout Japan.

At the same time, Kawashima Orimono attracted occupiers with an interest in exotic kimonos. The company's main factory in Higashi-Horikawa, Kamigyō-ku (now the Sun Residence apartment complex), was part of the occupiers' Kyoto tour route, with Dwight D. Eisenhower and Robert L. Eichelberger among the many who visited. Kawashima Orimono was also part of the standard route for sightseeing tours for general officers and their families, with soldiers visiting the factory several times a week and, from 1947, foreign buyers able to make the journey to Japan for business meetings (Kawashima Orimono hen, Rengishō: Kawashima Orimono—go-jū nenshi, 1989). 

In response to this trend, Kawashima Orimono set up a showroom at its head office to market its interior decoration fabrics to foreign customers. Also, in 1948, under the auspices of SCAP, craftsperson Tazue Kitaide, demonstrated spun-weaving at an international textile exhibition in New York (Pacific Stars and Stripes, June 13, 1948). Notwithstanding Kawashima Orimono's ability to mass-produce fabrics for the occupation forces, international displays like this tended to show fabrics being hand-woven by kimono-wearing women.