[Japanese Americana]. Oka, Morito

Sangai no Mado Kara [From the Third Floor Window]

Tokyo: 1929. 249pp. Original drab printed wrappers. Spine lightly toned and chipped, light soiling and wear to covers. Inscribed on title page, contemporary ink notation on rear endpapers. About very good. Item #3931

First edition. A collection of essays originally published in the Japanese American News; the author worked for the Los Angeles branch of the newspaper. The essays, most quite short and some comprised of just a few lines of poetry, offer observations on Japanese-American life and culture. Content is personal commentary rather than journalistic reporting, but does include one poem about smuggling people over the U.S.-Mexico border (p.65). Others address the second generation Nisei. We note that the author's name is transliterated differently in several places and is, quite possibly, a pseudonym. The present copy is inscribed on the title page, possibly by the author. We note two copies in OCLC at the National Diet Library and Waseda University.
JANM Bibliography, 216. A Buried Past, 677.

Price: $1,500.00