Me And My Uke

So, how did the ukulele get it's name?  Well, I've got two stories on that one, and  the first is the better known of the two.  Ukulele is from the Hawaiian and it roughly translates as jumping flea.  One would normally think that because the instrument is so small  and the strumming movement so fast that it would recall the insect, and that is part of it.  But, there is just a hint of British imperialism that goes along with that version of the story.  It seems that King Kalakaua employed Edward William Purvis, one of those ubiquitous Englishman, imperialist adventurer turned mercenary, in his officer corps.  Unlike the rest of the King's retainers, Purvis was a very small person, and full of nervous ticks.  He was also a lover of the instrument, and played rapidly.  His Polynesian comrades liked to make fun of him behind his back.  He was the jumping flea, and the name got transferred to the instrument.  The other story is a lot less interesting, and much more likely to be true.  It comes from Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii.  According to her, the name comes from two Hawaiian words, uku, which translates as gift and lele, which means to come.  Therefore ukulele means the gift that came here.

 And while we're on the subject of Hawaiian rulers, the next time a Texan says, "Well, after all, Texas was the only state that was once an independent country, and that's why we're so special," remind them of Hawaii.

So, even though the ukulele is thought of as an Hawaiian instrument, it's origins are actually Portuguese.  It was very popular with Portuguese whalers and they may have introduced the uke to the islands. (There was also a wave of Portuguese immigration to Hawaii in the late nineteenth century, an alternate explanation.)   In the nineteenth century, the Hawaiian Islands were at the center of the world's whaling industry.  With the Atlantic hunting grounds all but exhausted, European and American whalers were forced to seek their prey in the Pacific Ocean.  The waters around Hawaii were teaming with whales, and unfortunately for the native Hawaiians, they were rather friendly and welcoming of strangers.  The Hawaiians got the ukulele from Portuguese sailors, (Or settlers.) as well as a whole host of western diseases, land taken and carved up among sugar interests,  an overthrow of their government, and a certain amount of cultural corruption.

Fun fact about Hawaiian music.  In 1929,  Hawaiian born Yukihiko Haida went to Japan, his parents homeland, and formed The Moana Glee Club, a band that played Hawaiian music.  Their popularity soared and ukulele music became very popular in Japan.  During World War 2, the Japanese government attempted to suppress American music.  Jazz, big band, and Hawaiian music were targeted as degenerate forms of expression.  Despite the imperial government's best efforts, Hawaiian music retained it's popularity throughout the war.  In 1959, Haida, still living in Japan, formed The Nihon Ukulele Association.  Today, Japan is a hotbed of Hawaiian music and culture.

And finally, I have to recommend one of my favorite bands, Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys.  Klein, the chanteuse of the ukulele, performs and records songs from the twenties and thirties with the occasional klezmer tune thrown in.  Type her name in your favorite search engine and bring up her website.  She posts a number of old, vaudeville related photos that are worth seeing.

Written on the back of the photo, "Me and my uke."  I'm thinking cabin in the Adirondacks rather than Hawaii.

Nagasaki

This is it.  The last of my nautically themed images...at least for awhile.

No, this postcard was not mailed from Nagasaki by a happy passenger making a first visit to Japan.  It was mailed from the New York offices of The Hamburg-Amerika Linie to the Reading Eagle in Reading, Pennsylvania.  It's a press release.  Pre-printed on the back of the card....

"New York, April 12, 1930

The "Resolute" arrived on time this morning at Nagasaki, as reported by radio-gram.  On the way there were Travel Lectures and a Bridge Tournament.

At Nagasaki, on the Island of Kyushu, Western Japan, the "Resolute" was greeted by the mayor and all other city Authorities, who gave our passengers a Luncheon with an address of welcome and Geisha Dances under the Cherry Blossoms.  This delightful reception was in Suwa Park, where is the Bronze Horse Temple, overlooking beautiful Nagasaki Harbor.

This is the place where resided if fictionally Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Pierre Loti's Madame Chrysantheme and their creators could not have chosen a more charming spot as the locale of their tragic romances.

Here every lover of the romantic and beautiful has felt a responsive thrill.

HAMBURG-AMERICAN LINE.

Printed in Germany."

I'm sure it would be possible to find out if the Resolute actually docked when this card said it did, and whether or not the entire city leadership showed up to celebrate it's arrival or not, but it is a pre-printed card, so I have my doubts.

Hamburg Amerikanische Paketfahrt Actien-Gesellschaft, (I'm glad I won't by typing that again) or in English, Hamburg American Packet Shipping Joint Stock Company,  was founded in 1847 to do one thing...make money from European emigrants headed to the United States.  As it's profits grew, the Hamburg-America Line expanded service to all  continents, excluding Antarctica. It became  the largest shipping company in Europe, and at times, the largest in the world.  In both World War 1 and World War 2, most of it's fleet was wiped out, but the company managed to survive both times.  In 1970, Hamburg-America  merged with Bremen based North German Lloyd to form HAPAG-Lloyd, still one of the world's largest shipping companies.  

Hamburg-America had a number of famous ships in it's fleet.  In 1939, The St. Louis, named for the French saint, not the city,   had a passenger list made up almost entirely of Jewish refugees.  After being denied entry into Cuba, the United States and finally Canada, it's captain refused to return the ship to German ports until he had found nations willing to accept his passengers.  Eventually he manged to get entry visas in a number of  European countries.   All except  England would be over run by the Nazis just a few years latter.

A far less famous ship, but one with an interesting history was The Amerika.  It first saw headlines in 1912.  While making a crossing from Hamburg to New York, it encountered heavy pack ice.  Its captain ordered his ship to come to a full stop, and also ordered a general advisory broadcast on the new Marconi wireless system.  With one exception, the Titanic, ship captains in the area either ordered a halt or slowed their ships to a crawl until daybreak. In 1914, The Amerka was at company docks in Boston when war was declared between Germany and Great Britain.  Realizing that it would be almost impossible for the ship to get back to its home port without being either captured or sunk, The Hamburg-America Line ordered the ship to stay in port.  When the United States entered the war, The Amerika was still in Boston and was immediately seized by the United States Shipping Board for use as a troop transport.  During the war, with its name Anglicised to The America, it carried troops to Europe as part of the navy.  After the war it brought them home as part of the army.  Returned to the U.S. Shipping board, in 1920, it was assigned to The United States Mail Steamship Company and after that companies demise, it was transferred to the United States Lines.  The America was a passenger liner on the north Atlantic run until 1931, when it was decommissioned and placed in mothballs.  With American entry into World War 2, it returned to service as a troop transport for the army with a new name,  The Edmund B. Alexander.  The ship survived the war undamaged, and continued in service ferrying troops,  and their dependents home, until 1949.  Returned to mothballs, it was scrapped in 1957.  I'm sure that the ship's designer saw his handiwork as an elegant and comfortable  way for passengers with a certain amount of money to get from Europe to the United States and back  Instead, his ship spent a large part of its life as a troop transport, dodging torpedoes in the north Atlantic.

Now, take one last look at this postcard.  In 1945, Nagasaki became the second city  (so far) to be destroyed be an atomic weapon.  Old photographs and postcards are a way of seeing a world that has disappeared or, sadly, been destroyed by one of the many wars of the past 100 years.  I don't think we're an admirable species.

Bluejackets From Nebraska

The only photo in this group that has any writing on the back is the first one in the column. "Adm. Olson, Bob Harris-Yokosuka, Me" Is "Me" Denzel Smith? I went to the obituary photo of Denzel, (See the previous post for a link.) and compared the gentleman on the right, same cleft chin, same shape to the face. I'd say it's about a 95% match. Too, we know that Denzel Smith was in the navy from 1942 to 1946. Yokosuka was a large Japanese naval base at the mouth of Tokyo Bay that was turned over to the United States in 1945. So, while I don't know if Denzel was ever posted to Japan, it's possible that he was there, playing baseball for a navy team in 45 or 46. And we also know from an earlier post (navigate back two) that Denzel was a high school baseball player. Yes, I'm thinking another chapter in the extraordinary life of Denzel Smith, scholar, athlete, veteran of both the army and the navy, consultant to presidents.

There is also some stamped information on the first three photos. On the first one, "Neg. No VNC-6693 (c) -9-56 RELEASED OFFICIAL NAVY PHOTOGRAPH IF PUBLISHED CREDIT LINE MUST READ: OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH" And on the next two images, "OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH Released for publication The navy department has no objection to use of this photograph to commercial advertisements, provided copy and layout are submitted for review, prior to publication to a District Public Information Office. Naval Training Center Public Information Officer. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE, U.S. Naval Training Center, San Diego 33, Calif."

Occupied Japan 3

Part 3 of 3. Japan was occupied by the allies from the end of World War 2 until April 28, 1952. Unlike Germany and Austria, Japan had a civil government of its own during the occupation. Embracing Defeat by John W. Dower is an excellent book about Japan after the war. Click on occupied Japan in the labels section or navigate back to see the other posts.

Occupied Japan 2

Part 2 of 3. Can anyone out there identify this city? I've been scrolling through on line photo files of Japanese cities and have found a couple of maybes but no sure fire match. Click on occupied Japan, or scroll back two posts for part one.

Occupied Japan 1

A 35 mm format, 21 frames taken in occupied Japan, presented in three posts of seven images each. What an American GI would have seen while off duty.

Army Wife

Labeled, "This isn't quite so bad but my nose-oh! Capt. Woodward, Capt. Young in their cabin May 4, 1948 aboard the U.S.A.T. General Simon B. Buckner from New York to Yokohama." The USSN General Simon B. Buckner was launched on June 4, 1944 and was named the Admiral Edward Walter Eberle and was used for troop and other personnel transport. In 1946 it was transferred to the U.S. Army and renamed the General Simon B. Buckner in honer of General Simon Bolivar Buckner the highest ranked officer killed in World War 2. He was killed by enemy artillery fire on Okinawa. The Buckner was returned to the Navy and active duty as a transport until it was decommissioned in 1999. This lady was most likely the wife of an officer assigned to occupation duty in post war Japan. It is also possible that she was a civilian administrator or support personnel.

Post War Japan

Three of these images are conventional portraits. One photo looks like it's from outside a Japanese brothel. The portrait of the lady in the kimono is labeled, "Yokohama, Japan Oct. 1945," only a couple of months after V-J day. American troops would have been looking for both girlfriends and prostitutes in occupied Japan.