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Exercising program in Japan

This photograph is from the August 6, 1941 edition of the Photographic Weekly Report (Shashin Shuho), which was a weekly pictorial journal published by the Japanese Cabinet Intelligence Department during the interwar years of 1938-1945. This magazine functioned as propaganda that the Japanese government used to shape public moral for the war. This picture shows shirtless Japanese girls participating in a physical fitness routine at school during the summer. The caption translates to: "School this summer. The midsummer heat reaches 30 degrees Celsius, but that is nothing compared to the scorching heat at the front. The norm theses days for healthy young students, and even youngsters at Citizens' School, is to abandon the idea that because school is out, it is all right to be physically unfit and while away the summer at play. Now, summer vacation is a meaningful time, the time of training the body." (Translation from: David C. Earhart, ed., "Certain Victory: Images of World War II in the Japanese Media" (Armonk, NE: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 207)

Jacar (Japan Center for Asian Historical Records), "A Window into the Early Show Period: Shashin Shuho: Weekly Photographic Journal," August 6, 1941 issue, https://www.jacar.go.jp/english/shuhou-english/pdf/all/A06031077500.pdf

1941-08-06

Public Domain

PWR_JapaneseGirlsExercizing.jpg