Victory over Japan Day

VJ Day 1945: The Bravest Generation Celebrates WWII's End (Archive)

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• published: 17 Jun 2013
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From Richard: My Dad (USN) shot this beautiful color Kodachrome 16mm film footage before, during and after VJ Day, August 14, 1945, in Hawaii. My Dad's rude introduction to WWII took place on the morning of December 7, 1941 when, eight minutes before enemy bombs rained down on Pearl Harbor, he was literally bombed out of his bunk at Oahu's Kaneohe Naval Air Station by Japanese fighter planes. Following the passing of my Mom and Dad I came into possession of this spectacular 1945 film footage of VJ Day celebrations in Honolulu. Coincidentally the global economy tanked the same year. My initial efforts at conserving the footage and the producing my intended documentary of VJ Day and its consequences, "The Bravest Generation" were impeded by the scarcity of funding. Efforts at winning financial backing from traditional sources like institutions and corporate entities to pursue preservation and documentary production were negatively influenced by overall economic conditions. But with the advent of Kickstarter, an entirely democratic method emerged independent of previous, difficult-to-access avenues allowing hundreds of people like me to bring their creative dream projects to reality. An initial digital scan on the footage was performed in 2009, and the result can be seen here in the trailer. Since then, film scanning technology has advanced exponentially, as has also the software technology for the masking/removing of dirt, scratches and other flaws on the film without altering or degrading the original images. No commercial color movie film medium other than Kodachrome has survived deterioration for three quarters of a century. My footage, save for easily-remedied color fading and color shift (the trailer has been color corrected using 2009 technology), is virtually unchanged after 68 years. Germany's Agfachrome movie film from the 1930s −1940s, for example, was inferior to Kodachrome from the get-go, with present-day surviving Agfa motion picture and photographic color slide film from that era having shifted dramatically in overall color tint toward green. Even Adolph Hitler turned his back on Agfachrome, preferring instead Kodak's products to document his rule. Today's surviving Nazi-era color films were virtually all shot on Kodak's Kodachrome film. Properly stored Kodachrome, like the footage my Dad shot, has survived amazingly well, but it is ultimately beginning to show its age. Common Kodachrome problems due to the passage of time and less-than-ideal storage conditions are often seen as a shift in overall color toward red, and the crackling of the emulsion in a spider-web-like pattern similar to that seen in the glazes on antique pottery, which dulls the overall moving image and allows mildew and emulsion loss to take hold. Before natural conditions caused by time's passing can diminish this unique record of the euphoria of VJ Day and the wrapping-up of the military's wartime role, this footage deserves and requires the best quality digital scanning, dirt & scratch removal, and color balancing to return it as close to possible to its original 1945 state. About Richard: Previously a photographer for the LA Times Sunday Magazine, and contributor as photographer and writer to Los Angeles Magazine, I segued into guidebook publishing in 1992 sponsored by the Eastman Kodak Co. and Budget Rent A Car: American Airlines named my resulting "Driving & Discovering Oahu" (currently 4.7 stars on Amazon) as Best Hawaii Guidebook at its Hawaii Travel Journalism Awards. In 1992 my first photography show utilizing the gum bichromate process took place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2010 my short film The Bravest Generation seen here won runner-up at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. I have published two novels of a planned trilogy about the immigrant experience in Buffalo's irish 1st Ward, entitled "The First Ward."