Rare Photobook Documenting Pre-WWI Japanese Businesses in Southern California

[Album of Japanese in the United States] Zaibei Nihonjin shashincho

Rafu Asahi Shimbun Editorial Department

Notes: A substantial photobook documenting the Japanese community in Southern California (despite the title, this is not a national survey) put together by the editorial staff of the Rafu Asahi Shimbun, a short-lived Los Angeles Japanese newspaper that launched in 1910.

According to the brief introduction, this book documents the successful business experiences of Japanese immigrants to the US. Each image of a business, a farm, or (less often) a residence identifies the owners by name and location. Except for the introduction and a somewhat crude map of Southern California, this book is entirely devoted to half-tone reproductions of photographs of Japanese American businesses in the Southland, perhaps 200 in total.

The genesis of this book may be the split among the Japanese in Southern California over produce markets. In 1909, an upstart group of Japanese, Chinese, and Caucasian (Hakujin) farmers and business owners formed a new market on Ninth Street to compete with the White-run market on Third Street. The Japanese newspapers in Los Angeles generally supported the original market. A group of dissident journalists formed Rafu Asahi Shimbun (the newspaper that published this book) in 1910 and declared support for the new Ninth Street market. One of the first photographs in this book is a panorama of the new market with a particularly confrontational caption emphasizing racial issues (an atypical stance for most Japanese American publishers at the time). The caption specifically cites the Caucasian monopoly at the old market and the White political and media forces arrayed against the new market (see the online Desho Encyclopedia entry for Rafu Shimpo by Eiichiro Azuma for more information on the conflict).

117 leaves, as follows: [ix], 1–7, 9–11, [8?], 12–24,[24 bis], 25, [25 bis], 26–106 leaves printed rectos (front side) only. Oblong: 13-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches.

OCLC: Facsimiles and microfilm copies only, it appears.

Edition + Condition: Generally a good to very good copy, resewn at some point; some minor staining to the interior; spine chipped.

Publication: Los Angeles: Rafu Asahi Shimbun, 1913.

Item No: #307818

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