American Occupation servicemen enjoy Japanese Turkish baths

Here’s some vintage coverage of United States servicemen enjoying nascent Japanese-style Turkish baths (toruko-buro, the old name for what became soapland).

“The Turkish Bath has come to Tokyo with a difference,” it proclaims. “Real Hot Turkish Bath”. Hmm, quite.

The source is apparently a June 1958 issue of adult magazine People Today. The original scans are viewable here.

The magazine article appears to cover the new modern steam baths appearing in Tokyo in the postwar period, possibly during the occupation years before prostitution was illegalized.

This is all very tame, describing how Don Digilio, a 23-year-old Army private gets a hot steam bath and massage in Asakusa.

The pictures show staff and patron scantily clad, but clothed nonetheless. Of course, in reality there were and are more adult versions of these baths, where the ladies are certainly not clothed and things don’t just stop at some brow-mopping.

There is some “good scrubbing Miss Sudo”, plus the masseuse walks on the client’s spine “as is the Jap custom” (cringe!). Finally, Digilio and his ladies “enjoy a beer at the emporium’s bar”.

According to the magazine, 10% of steam bath clients are Americans, part of the occupation forces.

Of course, today Asakusa is a bit of a dive, except for the tourist spots. Just over the river is Yoshiwara, the old Edo red light district and still today full of fuzoku. The east is certainly known as a place for cheap fun and other areas like Ueno and Uguisudani are full of budget sex clubs, though the whole urban center of Tokyo has shifted westwards to Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro and Shinagawa.

Apparently Yokosuka, home to a US naval base, also offered toruko facilities.