September 1937. Japan had just stepped into the second Sino-Japanese war, that in part leads to World War 2, a few months previously. This is the cover of the beautiful Asahigraph, previously published by the Asashi Newspaper company. This issue is stuffed full of pro-war propaganda, but yet the pictures are still honest and poignant.



Nothing conveys the brutal honesty of this cover better than a close inspection of the faces of the soldiers. Pain, fear, nativity all play across their faces. Their faces are the true faces of war. It's fascinating. (Not to mention linguistically curious, being pre-World War 2, all the Japanese titles are printed "backwards" in regards to current convention.)



With this post, I take my archiving up a notch. This was not sourced from the endless corners of the web somewhere. (Although being that it is public domain in Japan, I'm sure it will end up on Wikipedia and what not!) No, this was found in an antique store with my own hands. I hope to upload a lot more in this manner too.