Tsukon no Showa/Japan in the Showa era by Ishikawa, Koyo - 1988

Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1988. Paperback. First edition. Fine in a Fine dust jacket with a hint of wear at the extremities. This is often referred to as a hardcover but is in fact a very stiff card cover. All dust jackets are protected by a clear mylar cover. BOOKS SHIP THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY, WRAPPED IN PADDING, IN A BOX. Photographs by Koyo Ishikawa. 180 pages; b&w photos throughout; 7.25 x 10.25 inches. Text in Japanese. Photo-documentary of the Showa era of Japan from roughly 1934 to 1960. All the photos are by Ishikawa (1904-1989), a Tokyo police-photographer who documented street life, political and military events, civil preparedness drills, and other civic events in the 1930s; the preparations for war and the effects of the war on the people and cityscape of Tokyo in the 1940s; the occupation by Allied Powers after 1945; and in the 1960s, street life, disasters, demonstrations, etc. A remarkable collection of images showing life in Tokyo over the period of the Showa era, defined by Hirohito's term as Emperor. Ishikawa was for example the only photographer allowed to document the fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945, which left more dead than the initial atomic blasts.