CITIZEN 13660
Signed first edition, with an original drawing, of Okubo's groundbreaking graphic memoir of her WWII internment, with multiple ownership markings from residents of the same camp.
Very good.
Price: $5,000.00
CITIZEN 13660
"Published in 1946 before the term 'graphic novel' was coined, Okubo's work foregrounds and prefigures the modern graphic novel." — Stella Oh
Based on her more than 2000 drawings produced while interred at Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah (and subsequently winnowed down to roughly 200 for this book), Okubo's memoir is now rightly considered not only a classic document of Japanese internment, but a pioneering work in the still-burgeoning genre of the graphic novel. The book is increasingly scarce in its first edition. Given its university press origins, many presumably went to libraries. While the book was well-reviewed, it appears that remaining copies languished: "The War was forgotten [...] People were rebuilding their lives" (Okubo, x). The book was not reprinted until the 1970s, but since that time its importance and influence have only grown.
This copy exhibits the ownership markings of several fellow Japanese Americans who were internees with Okubo at Topaz. The front pastedown contains a presentation inscription from Hisako and Francis (Mitsuji) Kudo (member of the highly decorated and predominately Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion) to the Rev. Masamoto Nishimura (founder of the Berkeley Free Methodist Church) and his wife Kimika — both of whom were internees at Topaz. Their daughter Rhoda Iyoya's address label is mounted to the front cover. Rhoda was incarcerated at the Topaz with her parents; she subsequently went to Vassar on a scholarship from the National Japanese-American Student Relocation Council. The ownership stamps of her husband Nicholas are also present.
A rare inscribed copy of an important work, with multiple lines of provenance from the community formed in the internment camp at Topaz.
Read more: Oh, "Graphic Novelists," in Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia; Okubo, Citizen 13660 (University of Washington Press, 1983); Trinh, Asian American Women: The Frontiers Reader; Cline, "100th Battalion, 442D Infantry Regiment, Army Historical Foundation; Nishimura, "Oral history transcription of Reverend Masamoto Nishimura," Issei Oral History Project.
The Object
New York: Columbia University Press, 1946. 9.25'' x 6''. Original blue and grey pictorial cloth. Lacking jacket. Black-and-white illustrations by Okubo throughout. Signed by Okuro on the front free endpaper, with an original drawing of a women, cat, and bird above. [6], 210 pages. Ownership label to front cover. Gift inscription to front pastedown. Several ownership stamps internally. Book has slight lean, bumping to corners. Shelf rubbing to extremities. Some faint sunning to spine. Else clean and sound.
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