DescriptionThis Isn't War Work, in Japan (1914 by Elstner Hilton).jpg
At first, I was puzzled by this photograph's enigmatic title, "This Isn't War Work." The photo shows a Japanese sawmill during the early decades of the last century.
Japan was allied with Great Britain and the U.S. in World War I, when Elstner Hilton took this photograph. So Elstner wasn't commenting on the war efforts of an enemy country.
Then I considered what Elstner did for a living. He sold mechanical sawmills, machines that do the work of many people in the blink of an eye.
I think when Elstner said "this isn't war work," he was making a statement about the incredibly slow and labor intensive process by which a single person sawed a log into planks with hand tools.
War work came to mind as a point of comparison because WWI was in full swing and many economies (including other sectors of the Japanese economy) had factories working day and night mass-producing weapons and other wartime goods.
Elstner's likely point was that true "war work" would require a much greater sense of urgency and a much larger commitment of human and mechanical resources than are apparent in this photo.
Regardless, one cannot help but admire the craftsmanship and skilled use of tools on view in this photo. I have a feeling that plank was going to come off the log straight and true.
From Elstner Hilton's album of photographs he took in Japan between 1914 and 1918.
Japan 1914 - 1918 I own the originals of these unpublished family photos. ... As a salesman for Atkins Saw Company, Elstner Hilton traveled to the Far East to sell commercial sawmills in the early years of the 20th century. ... Elstner Hilton was my father-in-law Frank Hilton's* brother, which makes him my spouse's uncle. ... * Elstner Hilton's brother Frank Hilton compiled a scrapbook of photographs, clippings and other ephemera at Stanford University between 1907 and 1911. ... ps: I now have reason to believe that the photos of Japan may be stock photos that Uncle Elstner purchased and pasted into his album. There may be some exceptions: the images of his sister, Miriam, and photos of logging operations in the Phillippines.
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