81 days ago, on April 1, the anniversary of the American landing in Okinawa in 1945, I publicly declared that my book manuscript, Beachheads: War, Peace, and Tourism in Postwar Okinawa would be finished on June 23, the standard date for the end of the Battle of Okinawa and Okinawa Prefecture’s Memorial Day (Irei no hi). Well, just as there is some controversy over designating June 23rd — the day the Japanese commanders of the defense, Ushijima and Cho, committed seppuku — as the end of the battle, there is some question over whether I should really be done today. You see, the Americans didn’t declare mop-up operations complete until a could weeks later, in July, and since I’m American and still have some mopping up to do with the manuscript (about 10-15 pages of mopping up, not including finalizing some footnotes), I figure I was in error to make the Japanese date my deadline. Now, I could claim September 7th as the deadest of deadlines since that is when there was a final formal surrender of the Japanese in Okinawa — five days after the formal signing of surrender documents on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. However, I think that would be pushing it a bit unreasonable. So, let’s say mop-up operations end Friday July 2. If I am not done by then, I will commit seppuku….
I shot my first roll yesterday with the 614 camera to test for light leaks, shutter speed, masking. A few things quickly learned from the negatives, this one being the best of them:
1. I got a small hole in the bellows which accounts for the light leak on the left. Sara and I found it with her flashing a light on the outside while I had my face in the bellows from the reverse side.
2. I need more rubylith tape over the “autographic window” that I’m using as the exposure count window; it apparently is not as effective blocking out harmful light as advertised because I have a second light leak where it is over the film on the right.
3. Small leaks along the edges, possibly from a slightly loose camera back. Hard to say. I’ll tape the seams along the back for the next test shoot.
4. I can’t easily cram 5 shots on one roll using the set of counter numbers on the backing paper intended for 4.5cm-wide shots. A fellow in a photo forum said you could use 1-4-7-10-13 for five shots, but mine came out slightly overlapping or without any space between frames. I will try my scheme of using a combination of the 4.5/6/9 numbers for five shots. Or simply be satisfied with four per roll.
5. The shutter — which is stuck on one speed — might be a little slow. Not as bad as I originally thought by viewing the negatives which I thought were overexposed, but that was mainly from light leaks. So, shutter test inconclusive.
6. This huge panoramic format is awesome. The camera has great potential; all I need are a few simple repairs.
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