Massive Look at Japanese Agriculture Just Before WWII

[A Compendium of Japanese Agriculture in America] Zaibei nihonjin sangyo soran

Murai, Koh [also Ko] (editor)

Notes: "The only comprehensive survey of the Japanese in agriculture. Compiled under the direction of Murai Ko, the president of the Beikoku Sangyo Nippo of Los Angeles, its core consists of his newspaper articles. Includes detailed information on agricultural techniques, brief histories of Japanese agriculture by state and locale, and a Who's Who."—A Buried Past, 331.

The Beikoku Sangyo Nippo newspaper was published twice a day in Los Angeles, covering agricultural and industrial news for the Japanese American community. Koh Murai assumed the position of publisher in 1938.

As might be expected, the bulk of the book describes agriculture in Southern California, with community-by-community reports. The final chapters cover the rest of California and the Western states. The initial plates offer halftone portraits of leading farmers and their operations. A few color advertisments promote Japanese American brands, including one full-page example showing a Japanese soldier and airplane, evidence of support of Japan's invasion of China among Issei.

In the 1930s, agriculture was the leading industry for Japanese immigrants and their American-born children. They tended to grow high-value specialty crops and the value of the farms was much higher than average (according to War Relocation Authority reports). This book describes Japanese American farming at its peak, little over a year before the internment of Japanese during the Second World War would disrupt and destroy most of the farms mentioned in Zaibei nihonjin sangyo soran.

[64 pages of plates, some in color], 4, 7, 982 plus additional unnumbered plates. 7-3/4 by 10-1/4 inches.

OCLC: 20876464 (cataloged under the corporate author Beikoku Sangyo Nipposha).

Edition + Condition: First edition. A very good to near fine hardcover copy in tan boards stamped in gilt with a dramatic eagle-and-map motif. In a worn but intact publisher's slipcase.

Publication: Los Angeles: Beikoku Sangyo Nippo, 1940 (Taisho).

Item No: #361094

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