About Miyagi 1951

George A. Butler M.D, was stationed at Camp Matsushima in the Miyagi Prefecture of Japan from March 1951 to the Spring of 1952. Today this is the Japan Air Self-Defense Force base in Higashi-Matsushima. As a member of the 578th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 40th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, he was part of a larger group of California National Guard sent to Japan for final training before serving in the Korean War. During this time, while serving as Battalion Surgeon, he spent his free time exploring the countryside and villages of the Miyagi Prefecture and took several thousand photographs.  The photographs center around the city of Ishinomaki and towns and villages between Ishinomaki and Sendai.  The photographs present a picture of the landscape, villages, and towns as they existed in the middle of the twentieth century in post-war Japan. 

The modern City of Ishinomaki and Higashi-Matsushima are an aggregation of smaller villages.  Much of the character of those rural villages is captured in the images that my father took. It is the story of rural life, largely unchanged from hundreds of years before. The beauty of the countryside and the children shines through his work and reflect his life-long appreciation of Japanese art, culture and landscape.  The rapport my father felt with the people he met and photographed is obvious in the photographs and explains why he developed a such a strong attachment to Japan and Japanese culture during his months in Japan.

The photographs show towns, landscapes and people living in a pre-industrial era now long gone. It also reveals some of the material hardships and difficulties of living in the post-war era. At the same time, the affection and respect my father had for the subjects of the photographs is obvious.

This website is created by and managed by Alan Butler. You may contact me at  alanbutler@sonic.net  

A New Book of Photographs and Exhibit 2021