Guests of the Mikado

[Guest Rick Research]

Mainly Sea Battalion, though most are missing shoulder straps. The sailor's jumper collar just doesn't look right, and there are several civilians--or at least men in civilian clothes--in this band.

But mostly what first caught my eye on this uncaptioned photo from the late Tony Colson's collection is... those Christopher Robin slipper/sandals.

[Guest Rick Research]

They're wearing the pre-war dark blue trousers with white piping, and NOT M1915 Feldbblusen, but the old pre-war gray fatigue Litewkas. The sailor's outfit just doesn't LOOK right for a German... all FAR too "out of regulation" to be anything BUT Tsingtau prisoners in a Japanese prision camp?

The mirror in the center is stencilled with three lines of text across the bottom, but all I can make out is the top line, which looks something like "MOTOMERA"

Prisoners of war in the FIRST World War experienced none of the barbarity faced by those in the Second. I know of a Tsingtau Marine reserve Leutnant's group in Australia (where he ended up in 1939) with hundreds of camp photos and his sword, neatly labelled in Japanese and returned to him when he was released in 1920.

[Great Dane]

Great photo

I think the text on the mirror is 'MOTOMURA?. If that is any help?

/Mike

[Guest Rick Research]

That certainly sounds Japanese!

If I really really squint, what I think I see for the second line is "Der Spiegel"-- "The Mirror." But I don't know if that is what is actually there or my brain making something my eye doesn't actually SEE. It is too fuzzy to be improved by enlargement-- I've tried. This is a very thin sort of contact print, not on glossy photograph paper stock.

[Chip]

Rick,

I'm fairly certain that the sailor is an Austrian. There were several navies that wore those gondolier's striped shirts.

Chip

[Guest Rick Research]

That seems like further reinforcement for my deduction (anyone know where to get deer-stalker hats, these days? ) that this completely anonymous photo comes from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

Clues, nothing but clues.