100 Stories1935 Found Footage of Emperor Showa's Visit to Nobeoka!

His Majesty the Emperor of Japan came for a visit. On November 15, 1935, he visited the Nobeoka Plant on his way back from a special army exercise.

Video footage recording this visit was discovered 50 years later, and was released to the public, attracting much attention. The video footage taken at the time had passed unnoticed within the company until it was discovered 50 years later in 1986.

When local residents learned of the discovery of this valuable footage, they flooded the company with requests to release it to the public. After much consideration, the decision was made to open the film to the public at the Asahi Kasei Exhibition Center in Nobeoka City.

The title of the film is “Welcoming His Majesty the Emperor - Asahi Bemberg Fiber Nobeoka Plant.” It is a roll of 16-mm film with a running time of 11 minutes and 20 seconds. Since the original film is extremely valuable, a re-recording was used for the public presentation.

The film is divided into three parts, the first seven minutes of which is the scene where His Majesty the Emperor visits the Bemberg™ factory. Despite the rain, female employees sit on their knees to welcome the Emperor, and the company executives, led by president Shitagau Noguchi, line up to welcome him. An employee familiar with that time recalls the scene as follows.

“On the day of the event, it was raining and we welcomed the Emperor at the front gate of the factory with umbrellas. I remember glimpsing His Majesty as he entered and exited in his car, and bowing respectfully to him.”

The film is very valuable just for showing the Emperor at that time, but it is even more so because it actually shows President Noguchi, the founder of the company, as well.

The second part of the film was a 3:20 minute look at the lives of the employees. It showed female employees at the Houtoku Dormitory, a women's dormitory that had just been completed, working hard at flower arrangement, sewing, gymnastics, and other activities, providing a glimpse of life in those days.

The youngest employee in the video was nearly 70 years old in 1986, when it was first shown to the public, but there were some who came to view the video and reminisced about their youth.

At the end of the film, a one-minute-long video showing the scenery of Nobeoka City, a newly emerging city with a population of 50,000 at the time, was shown. It showed the procession of portable shrines and floats carrying geisha at the Imayama Hachiman Festival, the bustle of the city, and onlookers in the street.

The roll of film was discovered by chance in a factory warehouse, 50 years after the Emperor's visit. Housed in a steel case, the film is mostly intact, and it is unclear who took the film and for what purpose. Moreover, it was not only a record of the Emperor's appearance at the time, but was also undoubtedly very valuable as a historical document.