Content note: Photographs of young men near-naked during a military medical examination. This object is shown as it was published. Why
'Students, from today we are the Emperor's shield': student conscription examination, Shashin Shūhō No. 297
A picture-weekly spread on the special conscription examination of university and college students in Tokyo. A full-height photo shows a line of shaven-headed, near-naked young men filing past; others show a chest X-ray, a weighing scale and examiners at a table under a rising-sun flag. The headline, 'Students, from today we are the Emperor's shield', borrows an archaic imperial-service phrase and a flag backdrop for a compulsory medical call-up (transfer).
- Date
- November 10, 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Cabinet Information Bureau (Jōhōkyoku), in Shashin Shūhō
- Region
- East Asia
- Country
- Empire of Japan
- Medium
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Showa Japan
- Leader
- Hideki Tojo
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Leader
- Hideki Tōjō
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- National Archives of Japan (Digital Archive), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (Japan: 1943 government-bureau work, term expired before 1996; free reuse per NAJ terms, metadata CC0)
国立公文書館所蔵 (National Archives of Japan), 写真週報 297号, 昭和18年11月10日, 情報局編, call no. ヨ310-0116
Text on the object
學徒われも 今日よりは醜の御楯ぞ 學徒の臨時徴兵検査 東京 第七番 徴兵官 陸軍大佐 村上[illegible] [illegible — introductory paragraph at top right, three body-text columns at left, photo captions] 9 3
Students, we too, from today are the humble shield (of the Emperor) The students' extraordinary conscription examination, Tokyo No. 7, conscription officer, Army Colonel Murakami [illegible] [illegible] 9 3
Headline and subheading read right to left from the large type; the placard on the small lower-right photograph is partly legible. All running text is in small type and is marked [illegible] rather than guessed.
