A Japanese Researcher Tweets Vintage Photos Colorized Using Neural Networks · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

The Japanese Emperor visits Disneyland, accompanied by Mickey Mouse. Image source: Hidenori Watanave.
Hidenori Watanave, an associate professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, has been exploring a tool created by researchers at Japan's Waseda University that colorizes images using neural networks and posting some of his results to Twitter.
Waseda University's online project, called Neural Network-based Automatic Image Colorization, was developed by researchers Satoshi Iizuka, Edgar Simo-Serra and Hiroshi Ishikawa. Neural networks are computer systems that work in a way that's similar to the human brain. Anyone can use their web-based tool to add color to black-and-white images.
Watanave has used the tool in several projects devoted to preserving and mapping eyewitness testimony from World War II, including an interactive map of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, and the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Watanave is also the creator of a similar innovative mapping project that tracks the last moments of the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
@AtomicHeritage @WWIImuseum A-Bomb cloud from Kure, Hiroshima. Automatic colorization by a neural network. pic.twitter.com/LjpcxLOUw0
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) December 22, 2016
Often, however, Watanave experiments with a variety of images, which he then posts to Twitter. Watanave has used the neural network-based technique to colorize a variety of photos from Japan's experience during the Second World War.
米軍機から撮影された沖縄本島爆撃のようす。渡久地と周辺の島から爆煙が上がっている。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。沖縄平和学習アーカイブより。 https://t.co/IcLM5VCIph pic.twitter.com/iXFRjdfDc4
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) January 4, 2017
Image of bombardment on Okinawa filmed from an American military aircraft. Smoke rises from the islands around Toguchi, Okinawa. From the Peace Learning Archive in Okinawa (沖縄平和学習アーカイブ). Colorized by neural network.
1945年2月から3月，日本軍と連合国軍の間で行なわれた「マニラの戦い」で破壊された市街地．ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け．写真はこちらから． https://t.co/eA8dPdPTR0 pic.twitter.com/qzCWRgsek2
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) January 5, 2017
In February and March 1945, Japanese forces and the Allies fought the Battle of Manila, which destroyed the city. Colorized photo originally from http://www.vintag.es/2016/12/18-rare-vintage-photographs-that-show.html
Many of the colorized photos he posts are ones he collected and curated as part of his projects detailing oral histories of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
被爆直後の長崎。破壊された浦上天主堂。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。ナガサキ・アーカイブより。 https://t.co/0JvaERYLpA pic.twitter.com/LdaQLmccmh
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) January 4, 2017
Nagasaki immediately after the nuclear blast. A demolished Urakami Cathedral.
被爆直後の広島。紙屋町交差点の北側から南西に向かって。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。ヒロシマ・アーカイブより。 https://t.co/EJcybdeTEw pic.twitter.com/jZlAyIl8pK
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) January 4, 2017
Hiroshima immediately after the atomic bombing. Looking southwest from the north side of Kamiya-machi crossing. Photo from the Hiroshima Archive.
Not all of Watanave's experiments have to do with the war. Many photos depict scenes from Japanese history over the past century or so.
1975年10月、カリフォルニアのディズニーランドを訪れた昭和天皇。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/gHIAXJp2en
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) December 22, 2016
In October 1975, Emperor Hirohito visits Disneyland in California.
1930年代，別府の海岸で砂風呂を楽しむ女性たち．ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け． pic.twitter.com/CZZyLGR8am
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) January 3, 2017
Women enjoying a hot-sand bath in Beppu sometime in the 1930s.
1908年にArnold Genthe氏が撮影した写真。場所はどこだろうか。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/Pk4ureVhXc
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) December 29, 2016
Photo taken by Arnold Genthe in 1908. It's unclear where in Japan this photo was taken.
And not all of Watanave's colorization experiments have to do with Japan. This interesting photograph provides a window into the Korean War:
朝鮮戦争出兵中の兵士たちを慰問するマリリン・モンロー．1954年撮影．ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け． pic.twitter.com/SutKWH17cJ
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) January 3, 2017
Marilyn Monroe entertains troops deployed in 1954 during the Korean War.
Watanave's Twitter feed can sometimes produce interesting results. Here, a Twitter follower appears to recognize a colorized photo of her own mother taken nearly 50 years ago in Tokyo:
晴れ着に日本髪で初仕事に就く電話交換手の女性たち。昭和45年1月5日、東京都千代田区。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/vW4stLY1fC
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) January 1, 2017
Dressed in their Sunday best and in a traditional Japanese hairstyle, young women enter the workforce [around the time of the annual Coming of Age Day] on January 5, 1970, in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.
@hwtnv ありがとうございます。自分の母の若い頃を見るようです。
— ほっぴー@この世界の片隅に (@hoppe714) January 1, 2017
Thank you for posting this photo. That looks like my mother when she was young.
Technical details of the Waseda colorization tool can be found here. The browser-based tool is available for use at http://hi.cs.waseda.ac.jp:8082/. The creators note that the tool is intended for non-commercial purposes only.