Marunouchi Hotel, c. 1930. The Marunouchi Hotel opened its doors in 1924, conveniently located 1/2-block from the north concourse of Tokyo Central Station, and was popular from the mid-1920s into the 1990s with out-of-town visitors doing business in the Marunouchi office district. During the Occupation (1945-1952), the hotel was requisitioned by Allied forces for use as officer billets.

Marunouchi Hotel, c. 1925.

“Hotel Marunouchi, located on ‘W’ Avenue and 4th Street, close to the Tokyo Central Station, is a good-sized place with 139 rooms, well patronized by Americans.

“Handily situated on the opposite side of the avenue is the Supper Club Marunouchi, with a dance orchestra and elaborate floor shows. On Thursday evenings the hotel puts on entertainment of its own, on its own premises.”

– All the Best in Japan, Sydney Clark, 1958

Marunouchi Hotel, Lounge, c. 1950.

Giant Japan Black Market Is Uncovered
 
Tokyo, Oct. 31 (UP) — American military police broke up what was described as the ‘biggest black market ever operated in the Pacific,’ believed to have sold more than $500,000 worth of U.S. Army goods in three weeks, it was announced today.

Four American soldier, two Italians and two Japanese were arrested by military police who raided headquarters of the market at the Marunouchi Hotel Tuesday night.

The hotel was used as a clearing house by the black marketers, authorities said.

… The hotel is two blocks from the Imperial palace grounds and near the metropolitan railroad station. The four arrested soldiers were members of the quartermaster depot.”

– Berkeley Daily Gazette, October 31, 1945

“The Marunouchi Hotel, where I stayed, is Western-style, one of the best in Tokyo, and it owes much of its atmosphere to the benign personality of its manager, Mr T. Kobayashi.

“As I arrived, bell-boys swung open the hotel doors, bowing. A smiling desk-clerk booked me in. A diminutive young porter protested politely that he was strong enough to carry my out-sized suitcase. It was such a burden to him that I insisted on carrying the heavy brief-bag.

“When we got out of the elevator on the fifth floor three maids, even smaller than the porter and looking like midget nurses in their white headcloths, descended on me. They bowed and chirruped Japanese consternation, as though it were unthinkable that a six-foot male, a guest, should be allowed to carry any of his own baggage.

“Tugging and laughing, they got the brief-bag out of my grasp and then bore it off between them in triumph to my room.”

– Japan: An Intimate View, by Claire Simpson, 1959