Rare, Early Japanese American Directory and Yearbook, 1906
The Japanese American Year Book / Zaibei nihonjin nenkan: No. 2, 1906
Notes: One of the first Japanese-American directories and yearbooks, with considerable historical information.
The yearbook section provides information on the legal status of Japanese immigrants in the US, immigration rules, marriage and divorce, criminal law, fisheries, import and export, and farming in California, Oregon, Texas, and the Midwest. There are also separate chapters on the Japanese in Oakland, Fresno, San Jose, Watsonville and Southern California. The text is extensively illustrated with halftone photographs and tables of statistics.
The directory (60 pages) is organized by city; the residents' names are in Japanese; the addresses are in English. Two advertising sections offer display ads from Japanese owned businesses.
"The yearbook of the Nichibei Shimbun. Includes sections on U.S.-Japan diplomatic and trade relations, the Japanese communities of the continental United States with important statistical data, Japanese and American laws and regulations pertinent to Japanese immigrants, and special features. The early issues are particularly valuable as historical sources."—Buried Past, 711 (under the later title of the series, Nichibei nenkan; this issue (no. 2) not listed in the bibliography).
2 leaves of plates; 20 (introductory matter), 224 (yearbook), 42 (ads), 60 (directory), 32 (ads) pages. Text in Japanese.
OCLC: Various serial holdings
Edition + Condition: A good only copy, rather dirty. Spine chipped; last ad leaf split at bottom. Not the prettiest copy, but with one US holding (at Yale).
Publication: San Francisco: Nichibei Shinbunsha, 1906 (Meiji 39).
Item No: #362070
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