Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edwin Swillinger span the years 1945 to 2021, with the bulk of the material dating from 1945 to 1954. The collection documents Swillinger's service as a medic in the United States Army during the Allied occupation of Japan following World War II. The collection consists primarily of photographs and military ephemera, such as camp newsletters, meal tickets, and Selective Service orders, taken from a scrapbook kept by Swillinger to document his military service and that of his twin brother, Richard Swillinger. Photographs are mainly candid and depict primarily military personnel and installations in the United States and Japan, including images of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1946 showing the aftereffects of the atomic bomb on the landscape. Material not part of the scrapbook consists of photocopies of letters written by Swillinger to his then-girlfriend Rose Marie Hartman, and a 1947 English translation of a 1945 report by Japanese doctors into the effects of radiation on the population of Nagasaki.
Material removed from the scrapbook has been photocopied to promote ease of access and preservation of the originals. Researchers are asked to use the photocopies in lieu of the originals, where available.