Two Japanese women place paper ballots into a large locked ballot box while men, women, and children wait in a queue inside the Yotsuya Ward office in Tokyo.

April 10, 1946 · Gelatin silver photograph

Voters at the Yotsuya Ward Office in Japan’s First Postwar General Election

U.S. Army Signal Corps, photographer unknown

Why it matters

The photograph was made to document occupation reform, but the ballot box and queue also return agency to the Japanese women and men performing democratic citizenship.

Publication
U.S. Army Signal Corps photograph
Holding institution
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration; digital copy via Showa-kan
Shelfmark
RG 111, SC 235850, Box 377; Showa-kan S1H2801103848
Rights
Public Domain; work of the United States Government

Citation

U.S. Army Signal Corps, photographer unknown. Japanese voters at the Yotsuya Ward office, Tokyo, during the first postwar general election. April 10, 1946. RG 111, SC 235850, Box 377. U.S. National Archives; digital copy, Showa-kan S1H2801103848.