WWII African American Army Pvt. William Roebuck Exceptionally Well Identified Photo Album of 96 Photographs with Captions in Japan, 1944

African American Military Service

Photograph

[African American Military][World War II] African American U.S. Army photo album documenting Pvt. William D. Roebuck’s World War II service in Japan, with unusually extensive identification of Black servicemen recorded throughout the album and accompanying military paperwork. Roebuck is named in induction and address forms preserved in the album, while the photographs name more than twenty fellow soldiers including John Moters, Wiley Sanders, Woodfen Henyard, Belton York, Fredi Chiles, Issaac Gordon, John Dixon, Franklin Geary, Milton Carter, Wallace Grandnigo, Eugene Cameron, Willie Ross, Leon Trigg, Tyler Jackson, Lonnie Williams, Chester Woodard, Abron Gee, and others. Albums of Black military service from the Pacific theater are rare with this level of internal identification; the typed captions make this personal wartime album a valuable record of individual Black servicemen, friendships, rank, movement, and service.

Album of 96 photographs, including album-mounted and loose prints, Japan and the United States, circa 1944-1945. The album contains 86 photographs tied to Roebuck’s service, fellow soldiers, time in Japan, and family life, plus 10 commercial views of Japan. 67 photographs affixed to black album leaves and 29 loose. Nearly every mounted image carries a typed caption strip beneath it, often identifying sitters by first and last name. The album includes Roebuck’s Fort Hayes in Columbus, Ohio, induction notice dated November 8, 1944, and a wartime change-of-address form naming Pvt. William D. Roebuck with Army serial number 35887304 and A.P.O. 21043 via San Francisco. Formal studio portraits show Black enlisted men in dress uniform and work clothes, some wearing sergeant stripes, branch insignia, qualification badges, or dark sunglasses; outdoor snapshots show soldiers beside jeeps, trucks, barracks, snow-covered camp grounds, and fenced work areas; several photographs depict relaxed groupings with arms linked or seated shoulder to shoulder. Multiple pages identify Japanese sitters and social encounters in Japan, including studio portraits captioned “Issaac Gordon & A Japanese Girl,” “Cpl Milton Carter & Michiko,” and “Wallace Grandnigo & A Japanese Girl,” as well as a separately captioned “A Japanese Woman.” Commercial photographs depict Tokyo and nearby sites, including the Nippon Gekijo Theatre in Marunouchi, the American Red Cross in Tokyo, the American Embassy, the G.H.Q. U.S. Army Forces Pacific building in Tokyo, the Imperial Hotel, Ginza, Ueno Station, the Nijubashi Bridge, Sensoji, and Mount Fuji. Loose family photographs extend the record beyond military life, showing children beside automobiles and apartment rows, a child identified as “Ella Marie,” a labeled view reading “Conn. Station - Leaving for New York,” and an inscribed photograph marked “Easter 1942 / Cincinnati.” Several loose versos preserve additional Black servicemen identifications in manuscript, including Tyler Jackson, Walter Cole, Richard Hayes, Richard Carter, Frederick Flowers, Robert T. Brown, and Thomas Byrd.

The album anchors Black military service in named faces and named relationships at a time when African American soldiers served within a segregated Army and were too often left unidentified in surviving photographic records. Roebuck’s preserved induction card, Pacific address form, and the album’s disciplined captioning practice make it possible to follow one soldier from enlistment into overseas service while also reconstructing a wider circle of Black servicemen whose names remain attached to their images. Older photographs range from fair to very good; photographs of Roebuck’s Army life are very good to near fine; overall very good condition. Name by name and image by image, the album preserves an unusually legible record of a Black soldier’s World War II service.

Item #23274

Price: $1,250.00