1497TH ENGINEER PORT CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR GROUP
OKINAWA 1945-46

Photos from a souvenir photo booklet produced by the 1497th EPC&RG for the men of the unit. The unit arrived on Okinawa on 19 May 1945 while the battle for Okinawa was still going on. Their primary mission was to clear and construct a new harbor at Naha for Navy ships to dock and unload men and cargo. They started work on Naha harbor on 7 June 1945 while fighting was still going on south of Naha.

The booklet was hand made using blueprint paper for the cover and pages and individual 4x5 photos were attached to each page by mounting them in slits cut in the pages. The first photo is the cover with a hole in it to show part of the photo mounted on the second page which is also shown. Each of the photos I then removed from the pages and scanned them in black and white to show what they would have looked like when first made. The titles on each page are shown on the photos that were on each page. At the end of the booklet was a large map that showed their route from the United States to Okinawa. I have enlarged the small scale maps of Naha and Okinawa that were on the large map.