A Japanese American Soldier Boy
New York: American Missionary Society, [1920?]. 8pp. Pictorial self-wrappers, stapled. Small perforation at upper left corner. Even tanning. Very good. Item #3850
An ephemeral piece of pro-Japanese propaganda, published by the American Missionary Society during the early 1920s when limitations on immigration to the United States from Japan were eventually put into place. The pamphlet purports to be an interview with "Kiyoshi," pictured on the front wrapper, a second-generation Japanese American born in San Francisco and an Army volunteer during World War I. The interview stresses the values of hard work and honesty supposedly inherent in Japanese families, and implies that success of Kiyoshi's family in the United States was amplified by their conversion to Christianity. The pamphlet concludes by stating:
"There is no force which makes for true assimilation and Americanization as the transforming power of Christianity.... Anti-Japanese legislation works injustice and hardships on them and only complicates the problem and in no way removes the difficulties. A practical Christianity lived out in the everyday life of Americans and Japanese alike will most quickly and surely dissolve the hate and race prejudice which lies at the bottom of the present bitterness and agitation." OCLC locates one copy, at Columbia.
Price: $600.00