Figure 1.-- This photograph was taken in 1947, only a few years after the War. It shows a little Japanese boy admiring the elaborate suit of armor once worn by his ancestors. These ancient warriors' outfits are treasured by the Japanese and valued highly as works of art. One wonders if it didn't enduce nightmares. The boy wears suspender shorts with long stockings.

The Japanese boy here looks to be about 4-5 years old. He is wearing suspender shorts over a sweater. Note that there is a v-shaped opening on the waistline at the sides of the shorts to make them easier to put on and take off. It looks as though there was a thin elastic string or tape to make the v-shaped gap expandable. I have never seen this feature in other suspender shorts. Perhaps it was a feature of Japanese suspender shorts. We have noted suspender shorts with simple button closure. The second feature worth noticing is the tan or light brown long stockings. In Europe and America boys normally wore elastic supporters to hold up their long stockings, especially in the late 1940s when the stockings were knitted very long and when the short pants tended, like this boy's, to be quite brief. But this boy seems to be wearing white round garters around this thighs rather than supporters. We note this same means of suspension on other Japanese boys as late as 1962. I think Japanese boys did sometimes wear European or American-style supporters to hold up long stockings (in lieu of tights, which were also popular at a later point), but Japanese mothers seem to have been less concerned than their American and European counterparts about the discomfort and unhealthiness of restricted blood vessels. The Japanese novelist Mishima mentions his discomfort as a boy of having to "garter our thighs." It isn't quite clear, however, whether Mishima is referring to round garters or to hose supporters attached to a waist. A reader writes, "The boy here appears to be wearing a sweater or knit long sleeve shirt tucked into his suspender shorts. Also, there appears to be some sort of round garter holding the stockings up but that may be just the image quality. Also note that Japanese do not wear shoes in the house, the boy appears to be in his stocking feet."

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Created: 1:05 AM 3/17/2006
Last updated: 1:05 AM 3/17/2006