[Japanese American Photographica]: [Japan]:

[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Documenting a Trip to Hawaii and Japan by Japanese Americans].

[Various locations in Hawaii and Japan: 1935]. [21] leaves, illustrated with ninety-four black-and-white and sepia-toned photographs. Small oblong octavo. Contemporary leatherette photograph album, string tied. Covers lacking, spine chipped. Bottom corner of most leaves chipped, with no loss to captions or photos, minor occasional dust-soiling. Photographs generally well preserved. Good. Item #4409

A wonderful annotated vernacular photograph album assembled by a young woman named Viola, documenting her trip from California to Japan in 1935. A small card on the front flyleaf is inscribed: "Dear Viola, Please use this album to paste pictures of your visit to Japan &c. With sincere regard, Pete Takahashi." Viola visited Hawaii and Japan with a half dozen family members and friends, including her mother, each of whom is pictured and identified throughout the album. The pictures show Viola herself (referred to both by her name and as "Me"), as well as her traveling companions in Honolulu, Waikiki, and Nuuanu Pali in Hawaii. A few pages contain photographs of the travelers aboard ship before arriving first in Hiroshima about halfway through the album. Most of the photographs from Viola's visit to Japan emanate from Hiroshima, where Viola and her mom pose with various Japanese elders, she visits the beach, and takes portraits of numerous identified locals. The final portion of the album emanates from Lake Nojiri, where Viola visited a summer camp and posed for a few additional pictures along with her mother and other Japanese women. A humble but informative travel album memorializing a young Japanese-American woman's trip to the mother country, where she visited Hiroshima a decade before the devastating bombs were dropped there at the end of World War II.

Price: $650