Shinjuku Isetan, Summer 1946 Request Card Festival

Shinjuku Isetan, Summer 1946 Request Card Festival

Last summer, when I heard that the "Request Card Festival" was to be held at Isetan in Shinjuku, I went there with great anticipation. The war was over and Shinjuku was trying to rise from the ashes, but its reconstruction seemed to be still in the middle stage. The black market remained in front of the station, the narrow alleys were lined with street vendors, and my shoes got dirty every time I walked along the muddy streets. While the town was alive with people, the shadow of what was lost in the air raids still lingered somewhere.

Department stores like Isetan stood out in this chaos. After the war, Japan's economy had begun a gradual recovery, and the rebuilding of department stores was a symbol of that recovery. Newly built on the ruins of a burnt-out building, Isetan had become a place to present culture appropriate to the new era, while inheriting its prewar prestige. The event attracted people who came not just to shop, but to experience a new era.

When I arrived at the venue, many people had already gathered. Young people with request cards in their hands were smiling and chatting, and the place was filled with excitement whenever the broadcasters' personalities echoed their voices on stage. As one of them, I ran my pen over my request card, thinking of my favorite Western music that I had recently heard on the radio.

Radio was the most familiar form of entertainment in Japan at that time. During the war, it was used as a tool for information control, but after the war, its role changed to one of comforting and connecting people's hearts. In particular, Western music was introduced and became a catalyst for new trends among young people. The event created a two-way cultural exchange as listeners sent their requests to the radio program, which were then shared with the audience.

Each time a requested song was announced, the audience was filled with applause and cheers. That song! someone shouted, and the people next to me smiled in response. I looked at the young stranger next to me and we laughed silently. We were not only listening to music, but also finding new friends and colleagues, and realizing that we were living together in this new era.

After the war, Shinjuku was often described as a cold town. It was a place where a diverse range of people gathered, and a sense of strangerly distance hung in the air. However, this day was different. The festival at Isetan was a special occasion that brought a sense of warmth to Shinjuku. It seemed as if Isetan, a large department store, was slowly trying to restore the hopes and dreams lost in the war. And in that space, we young people were also trying to grasp something of the new era.

By the time the event was over, the sky was tinged with sunset. I was still basking in the afterglow of the event, looking out at the reddening Shinjuku streets. The Request Card Festival showed me that Shinjuku was not just a place of excitement, but a place of dreams and hopes. The excitement and warmth of that day still live on in my heart.