World War 2, Japanese internment & comics 3 3

[vaillant]

I think this is getting a little off point here. jpepx78 is talking about Japanese internment camps not spies. Any other internment camp covers???

Um… Right.

[jpepx78]

 

Thanks for all the kind words about the posts.

Here again is one of the more fascinating photos of the Manzanar general store taken by Miyatake in April 1944.

 

I found a slightly better closeup photo of the comics on the side wall.

A couple of those books are highly desirable by collectors and who could have imagined a high grade copy of one of these books would sell for $173000?

Recognize the 10 comics?

 

Wonder 1, Fight 32, World’s Finest 13, Marvel Mystery 55, Green Hornet 18, Suspense 3, Leading 10, Supersnipe 15, Looney Tunes 31, Popular 99

 

 

[vaillant]

Do you know how the stores inside the camps worked?

I mean, if the japanese americans within weren't supposed to move out of the camp, did they just work the various activities, and the goods were brought in by the camp's rulers?

[vaillant]

BTW, the photos by Miyatake are wonderful…

[sfcityduck]

Great photo of the Suspense 3! I love those old pictures! Sorry I missed that when it was first posted. Great stuff!

 

Here's a painting from my collection depicting Topaz internment camp which was painted by Chiura Obata, who did the forward for Four Immigrants graphic novel, while he was interned for use as a Christmas card to friends outside the camp:

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2016 by sfcityduck

[sacentaur]

Great photo of the Suspense 3! I love those old pictures! Sorry I missed that when it was first posted. Great stuff!

 

Here's a painting from my collection depicting Topaz internment camp which was painted by Chiura Obata, who did the forward for Four Immigrants graphic novel, while he was interned for use as a Christmas card to friends outside the camp:

 

 

 

Nice historical item, I like it a lot. What are the painting's dimensions?

[sfcityduck]

Great photo of the Suspense 3! I love those old pictures! Sorry I missed that when it was first posted. Great stuff!

 

Here's a painting from my collection depicting Topaz internment camp which was painted by Chiura Obata, who did the forward for Four Immigrants graphic novel, while he was interned for use as a Christmas card to friends outside the camp:

 

 

 

Nice historical item, I like it a lot. What are the painting's dimensions?

 

Small, around 4x 6, basically Christmas card size. It is a neat historical item. I had been looking for an internment camp painting by Obata for close to 20 years. So I'm pretty happy I found this one! I know of about four or five other similar pieces. They are held by the Japanese American National Museum in LA or at the newly opened Topaz Camp Museum.

[sacentaur]

I enjoy Obata's work (he was an assistant art professor at UC Berkeley), and would be highly interested if one of his internment originals came to market (congrat's on such a great piece!).

[sfcityduck]

I enjoy Obata's work (he was an assistant art professor at UC Berkeley), and would be highly interested if one of his internment originals came to market (congrat's on such a great piece!).

 

Thanks, but mine won't be resold! I'm glad I got it as it fills a gap in my Obata collection.

[sfcityduck]

Do you know how the stores inside the camps worked?

I mean, if the japanese americans within weren't supposed to move out of the camp, did they just work the various activities, and the goods were brought in by the camp's rulers?

 

The residents of the camps were paid to work a variety of job functions (farming, making camo netting, teaching in the art school, etc. etc. etc.). They could then spend the money at the camp store. I have no idea who was responsible for stocking the store, but my guess is that it was the Camp Administrators because of security issues. I would not be surprised, however, if the residents of the Camp made requests as to what the store should carry.

[jpepx78]

Many of the internment camp stores were run as a cooperative where internees contributed money to run a business to buy and sell goods and provide services in camp. Some profits were used to subsidize needed but money losing enterprises and some profits were returned as dividends to internees. Internees with business experience were elected to a cooperative board to manage the business and supervise workers. Internees had input on what goods or services were desired. Here is a detailed description of how the Manzanar cooperative was set up and run.

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/manz/hrs12k.htm

 

[vaillant]

@sfcityduck: Beautiful card, and unique item! Very happy for you.

 

Thanks much to you and jpepx78 both for the reply: I am trying to study the whole period of World War 2 (actually starting from post WW1 Italy and our own situation) and it’s all such fascinating material.

That historical study on the Manzanar centre looks great, especially the early chapters documenting the "Anti-Asian tradition in USA". Does that exist in print?

[jpepx78]

 

Day of Remembrance 2017: 75th Anniversary of Executive Order 9066

In 2017 it will be 75 years since the issuance of Executive Order 9066 that prescribed certain areas as military zones and cleared the way for the deportation of Japanese Americans, German Americans and Italian Americans to internment camps.
February 19th is a National Day of Remembrance to acknowledge the wartime treatment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans in WW2.

I watched a documentary, "442- Live with Honor Die with Dignity", that was about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) which was composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry and was the most decorated American unit in US military history for its size and length of service.
In the background footage, I found this 3 second film clip of a little Japanese American girl carrying some belongings and a comic book while waiting for her ride to an Assembly Center.
The comic is Capt Marvel 11 and since the book was on newsstands on May 1st 1942, I believe this footage was taken in early May 1942.
She is most likely in California since she has a bag with California on it. Also notice the name tag on her coat as all evacuees were tagged.
A few of you may be wondering if she could be Okajima of the Okajima pedigree but she is too young and Fumiko Okajima was a 21 year old woman in 1942.

Here is a still frame from that clip.

 

I have looked at hundreds of Japanese American internment photos and I found a photo that I overlooked initially.
This photo of Japanese American children with their luggage waiting at a Los Angeles train station for their ride to the Owens Valley Assembly Center in April 1942 was taken by Russell Lee.

I noticed an object on a suitcase at the lower right and I found a higher resolution photo. I rotated and zoomed in to the object and lo and behold that object is a Detective 44 from 1940!
This is one instance where an "old" comic is seen instead of new comics on the rack or a worn and well-read recent comic.
One wonders what other "old" comics (pre-robin Tecs or early Batman?) the owner of the Tec 44 might have had and if he or she brought other "old" comics along.

Here is a photo of a family in their apartment at the Tule Lake internment camp in California and one of the boys on the floor is reading a comic.
This photo was taken by Carl Mydans on March 1, 1944.

 

Here is an extraordinary photo of a newsstand packed with many very desirable comics at the Tule Lake internment camp in April 1943. See if you can identify all the comics.
Who wants to read those books on the top shelf when there are so many cool comics?
There seem to be a very good selection of comics at the Tule Lake newsstand from the few available pictures.
Check out the sharp corners, glossy covers, plump spines and look at all those copies of Superman 23 and Marvel Mystery 44!

I believe that the smiling kid in the above photo is the same kid as the one on the left side of the widely distributed July 1st 1942 photo below since these were both taken at the Tule Lake internment camp. This photo was used as propaganda to show Americans that life was normal in the internment camps and internees were content. It probably didn't take much coaxing for these kids to smile (a soda and some comics) and in comparison with adults, most kids probably didn't dwell on the seriousness of their current life situation in the camps.

One possible reason why there seem to be quite a few pictures of internees with comics is that 40000 or about one-third of the internees were under the age of 20, so comics were a popular reading choice.
Most of the kids at the newsstands seem to be browsers instead of buyers based on my belief that they could read all the comics without restrictions. An actual comic purchase would probably be for a special book or event.

 

Edited February 18, 2017 by jpepx78

[jpepx78]

February 19th is a National Day of Remembrance to acknowledge the wartime treatment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans in World War 2. This story about the Japanese-American 442nd Infantry Regiment was a positive portrayal of Japanese-Americans during World War 2 and recently archived online.
This comic story was from a backup Mr Mystic feature in a 1944 Spirit newspaper section. Although the 442nd Infantry Regiment was not mentioned by name in the story, there is no mistaking the reference of a Japanese-American battalion who fought against the Germans in the Italian campaign. The story is drawn by Fred Guardineer who took over the strip from Bob Powell when Powell enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943. Guardineer took over the strip with the October 10 1943 section and stayed on Mr Mystic until its cancellation on May 14 1944.

A group of Japanese-American soldiers training in the countryside are mistaken for enemy soldiers invading the country by a girl friend of Mr Mystic. Mr Mystic is assumed to be a traitor since he is friendly with one of the soldiers. Panic ensues and Mr Mystic defuses and clears up the situation with some magic.

 

[path4play]

Thanks, jpepx78 for keeping on top of mind this unforgivable and tragic part of U.S. history.  I’m grateful for our very own U.S. legal system having reversed the unconscionable incarceration decision in the Supreme Court case Mitsuye Endo vs. the United States December 18th, 1944 followed up many years later by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. 

World-wide, I’m continuously shocked by learning of the numerous horrific slaughters enacted from various sides in WWII - like the Nanjing Massacre in 1938 where 300,000 Chinese were killed by the Japanese. In just one other location, 150,000 people were killed at Babi Yar Kiev under Nazi occupation. I sincerely hope we’ve learned from these unimaginable experiences. It is interesting as the comic you showed demonstrates, 33,000 Japanese Americans joined the Allied efforts against the Axis in the U.S. military during WWII.

Edited February 18, 2019 by path4play

[sfcityduck]

JPep,

Nice to see the thread bumped.  Do you have an ETA on when the Okajima pedigree will show up on the 50 Objects site?

Edited February 18, 2019 by sfcityduck

[sfcityduck]

1 hour ago, path4play said:

 It is interesting as the comic you showed demonstrates, 33,000 Japanese Americans joined the Allied efforts against the Axis in the U.S. military during WWII.

It is interesting.  There were also many Italian-Americans and German-Americans in service during WWII.  The explanation, I think, is simple.  The folks who immigrated to the U.S. and their children and grand-children born here, regardless of where originally from, largely decided that they owed their allegiance to the U.S.  That's basically the history of our country (unless you are a native American).

My son is studying the post-Civil War period.  One thing that really lept out to me was that there was considerable doubt as to whether folks from the Confederate states would fight for the U.S. during the Spanish-American War.  The kids and grand-kids of the former Confederate soldiers did.  Proving that Americans' love for their country can overcome former alliances, even those by former traitors.

[kazoo]

5 hours ago, jpepx78 said:

February 19th is a National Day of Remembrance to acknowledge the wartime treatment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans in World War 2. This story about the Japanese-American 442nd Infantry Regiment was a positive portrayal of Japanese-Americans during World War 2 and recently archived online.
This comic story was from a backup Mr Mystic feature in a 1944 Spirit newspaper section. Although the 442nd Infantry Regiment was not mentioned by name in the story, there is no mistaking the reference of a Japanese-American battalion who fought against the Germans in the Italian campaign. The story is drawn by Fred Guardineer who took over the strip from Bob Powell when Powell enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943. Guardineer took over the strip with the October 10 1943 section and stayed on Mr Mystic until its cancellation on May 14 1944.

A group of Japanese-American soldiers training in the countryside are mistaken for enemy soldiers invading the country by a girl friend of Mr Mystic. Mr Mystic is assumed to be a traitor since he is friendly with one of the soldiers. Panic ensues and Mr Mystic defuses and clears up the situation with some magic.

 

Thanks for posting this!

Do you know what the issue date is for this one in 1944?   

[bluechip]

On 2/20/2016 at 5:24 PM, jpepx78 said:

 

Thanks for all the kind words about the posts.

Here again is one of the more fascinating photos of the Manzanar general store taken by Miyatake in April 1944.

 

I found a slightly better closeup photo of the comics on the side wall.

A couple of those books are highly desirable by collectors and who could have imagined a high grade copy of one of these books would sell for $173000?

Recognize the 10 comics?

 

  Hide contents

Wonder 1, Fight 32, World’s Finest 13, Marvel Mystery 55, Green Hornet 18, Suspense 3, Leading 10, Supersnipe 15, Looney Tunes 31, Popular 99

This is what makes the Okajima comics interesting to me.   There are interned Japanese people selling comics to other interned Japanese people and on the wall is a comic with a hero dragging a yellow, buck-toothed rendition of Tojo (or is it Hirohito?)

 

On 2/20/2016 at 5:24 PM, jpepx78 said:

 

 

[sfcityduck]

You know what's also cool about that picture of the Manzanar store?  That duck image is taken from WDC&S no. 26, which was cover dated November 1942.  It looks like a very nice larger than life (e.g. not traced) rendition of the cover of that comic.  So the folks running that store were putting effort into bringing attention to the comic display.