A Novel of Japanese-American Immigration

[How Mr. Yasuke Became a Yankee] Yankikasuru madeno misuta yasuke

Ano, Juri

Notes: A comic novel about a Japanese man who immigrates to the United States, landing in Tacoma, Washington, in 1918. The novel, probably a thinly fictionalized memoir, describes how strange the country seems to a Japanese native. The book involves train travel and a subplot about a picture bride headed for a marriage in New York. It also includes an American staple of the time, an English-language parody of the Rubaiyat, in this case a poem about about the perils of motor yachting titled "The Rubaiya(ch)ting or Joys of Gastro-enteric" Pain (pp. 144–147).

According to Ancestry records, Ano (b. 1887) arrived in Tacoma in December 1914 and was living in Greenport, New York, when he registered for the draft during the First World War. Where he went after that is not known to your cataloguer.

428 pages plus inserted half-tone plates and a portrait of the author tipped in at the front.

OCLC: 674038046 (Japan).

Edition + Condition: A very good copy bound in stiff blue cloth wrappers with yapped edges. House in a paper slipcase with a mounted title label depicting Uncle Sam and Mr. Yasuke.

Publication: Tokyo: Bunkyo Shoin, 1923 (Taisho 12).

Item No: #308095

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