These photographs are among a series of fifteen taken in 1945 by U.S. soldier Glenn S. Hensley. Hensley was a professional photographer participating in aerial surveillance of Burma for the U.S. Army. The images illustrate an encounter between Hensley and four fellow U.S. airmen with the residents of the village of Kharagpur, West Bengal. Some of the photographs have significant annotations that reveal how they and the people they encountered felt about their interactions. The airmen had access to darkroom facilities, so they were able to show the results of the encounter to Mukta and her father, whom they report as being very proud. The response of the other villagers is shown in their gathering at the scene. The collection of nearly 600 photographs and notes were prepared by Hensley for his wife to use in teaching world history courses in Missouri during World War II.

These photographs are included in an archive with over 600 images all taken by U.S. airman Glenn S. Hensley in 1945 in various locations where he was stationed. The island of Akyab in the Bay of Bengal, which is called Sittwe today, was occupied during World War II, first by the Japanese, then, in 1945, by the British and the Americans. It was a strategically important airfield from which supplies could be airlifted into Burma. These are two of a series of photographs documenting four different ways in which children pounded or ground grain for use. These small children wielded heavy hardwood implements for hulling rice or grinding grain. The tools have a timeless quality and show obvious signs of constant use. Similarly, the chores that the village children carry out in these images, and drawing water in others, were typical children's activities.

Hensley served the U.S. Army as a professional reconnaissance photographer. He and other American photographers Robert Keagle and Frank Bond had access to darkroom facilities, and often accompanied one another on photo excursions among civilians, so that each man's archive contains shots of the same scenes and people. For this reason, it is likely that wherever they went, "everyday" scenes took on an extraordinary quality for the people depicted. The archive, according to Hensley, was created and shipped to the U.S. for his wife to use in teaching world history courses in Missouri during World War II.