The Tent Dinner Party

 

This is another photo that I picked up from an eBay seller in Japan, but no, it's not part of the Random Japanese Snapshot Collection.  Anyway, I'm thinking that this photo is from post-war Japan.  It looks like there are a handful of non-Asian faces in the crowd, not to mention the Rainer Beer bottles on the tables.  There's a book out there called Embracing Defeat which is about how Japan and the Japanese accepted that they had lost the war, rejected militarism, and got on with their lives as best they could, which was the foundation of the post-war Japanese economic miracle.  When I saw this photo, I suspected that it's an illustration of that concept. 

May I have Your Attention Please

 

Judging by the way some of the people are facing, someone interesting, or more probably in a position of authority is at the head of the table.  A company dinner, perhaps.  Anyway, there's a lab stamp on the back of the print, but it's mostly unreadable.  I can make out "PRO-JEC-TED" and a word just below that that I think is either enlarged or enlarging.  The top part, however, is just too faded to make out, and that's probably where the lab's name, and perhaps, its location, was.  

The Dinner Party

  

Do people still do things like this?  Do they get dressed up, go to a friend's house and have a sit down dinner.  Maybe a family dinner at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  

Old Polaroids

Here's a fun fact, old Polaroid photos have a distinct chemical smell.  I'm talking about the ones from the fifties, sixties, and seventies.  This one is dated "1965." 

Dinner Party

The room looks too big for someone's home, so I'm guessing this was taken at a banquet hall, and this is probably a company party.  Management only, of course.  From the fifties would be my guess.