[Printed on the first leaf]: Shashinjō 寫真帖 [Photo Album]

23 black & white aerial photographs & one photograph of a map of the region (each ca. 97 x 142 mm.), all carefully mounted on 24 stiff leaves. Small 4to (274 x 227 mm.), orig. decorative boards, orig. stamp of the Manchuria Aviation Company on upper cover. [China]: [printed at the foot of the first leaf]: Manshū kōkū kabushiki gaisha 満洲航空株式会社, [1930s-40s].




An album containing a series of aerial photos taken by the Manchuria Aviation Company, or Manchukuo National Airways, which was the Manchukuo flag carrier. The company was founded in 1931 to serve the needs of the Japanese Kwantung army, but it also had civilian operations. Destinations served included Xinjing (today's Changchun), Fengtian (Shenyang), Dalian, and Jiamusi in Manchuria, as well as Tianjin in China, Pyŏngyang and Ulsan in Korea, and Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka in Japan. Operations ceased with the end of the Second World War and the return of Manchuria to China.


Our book contains 23 aerial photographs of Manchuria mounted on cardboard leaves; each has a small pre-printed label below identifying the location. Scenes covered include the eastern Qing imperial tombs near Shenyang, the White Pagoda of Liaoyang, the walled city of Jinzhou, an ice breaker plying the Bohai gulf, the Great Wall of China, the Tibetan Buddhist temple at Chengde, striking geological formations in the vicinity of Rehe, flooded countryside near Changchun, the Khingan mountains, the frozen Sunggari river by Jiamusi, a forest fire in the mountains near Harbin, the lake on top of Mt. Paektu (Changbaishan) on the border with present-day North Korea, and blossoming cherry trees in the town of Andong.


Using numbers, the map depicts each location shown in the photographs. Railway lines and flight routes are also portrayed.


Fine condition.