Okajima pedigree 25 25

[miraclemet]

6 years ago I missed out on this book. I had just picked up my second  Okajima a month earlier on Clink. This one was in auction, but I was living in Belgium at the time and. If I remember right I woke up too late (it was like 3am local) to get a bid in.

It wasn't listed as an Okajima at the time, and it is still not in a pedigree slab(which I'll be remedying), or even noted with the pedigree by HA. But since I just had to pay well over 3x Overstreet on HA a minute ago (still a great deal) I'm betting I wasn't the only one that knew this books secret....

 

Check out the code in the upper right hand corner...

Here's the code on the Okajima Superman (pedigree slab, camp code, no signature) that sold on eBay last week... Looks identical.

Very excited. And my first military camp era Okajima to boot! 

Edited June 29, 2020 by miraclemet

[skypinkblu]

1 hour ago, miraclemet said:

6 years ago I missed out on this book. I had just picked up my second  Okajima a month earlier on Clink. This one was in auction, but I was living in Belgium at the time and. If I remember right I woke up too late (it was like 3am local) to get a bid in.

It wasn't listed as an Okajima at the time, and it is still not in a pedigree slab(which I'll be remedying), or even noted with the pedigree by HA. But since I just had to pay well over 3x Overstreet on HA a minute ago (still a great deal) I'm betting I wasn't the only one that knew this books secret....

 

Check out the code in the upper right hand corner...

Here's the code on the Okajima Superman (pedigree slab, camp code, no signature) that sold on eBay last week... Looks identical.

Very excited. And my first military camp era Okajima to boot! 

Congrats! I won the Superman...is that one a camp era book, too since it's got the same code? I honestly was not sure.

[miraclemet]

8 hours ago, skypinkblu said:

Congrats! I won the Superman...is that one a camp era book, too since it's got the same code? I honestly was not sure.

We cant say for sure cause we dont have a definitive chronology of her life or the camp timeline. 

Roosevelt rescinded internment orders on December 17, 1944. Almost all of the camps were closed by the end of 1945. 

I consider 43-44 books to be camp books, especially if they have either the signature or the code. There are a some late 44 books with neither, but that have a date stamp. The first one is a Mystery Comics 4 with a date stamp of 10-21-44. There are more comics with date stamps in November and December. Once we get later into 1945 she had stopped marking books. Superman #33 has a date stamp of Jan 5 1945 on the front cover and Super Magicians has a date stamp of Jan 16 1945. By February the stamping stops (Wow #33, no stamp, no markings) . I dont have a lot of records of 1945 books, her collection seems sparse at that point,but I need to do some more checking on that year. 

I think 1945 was spent moving around both within the camp system, and then out of the camp system. I'm not sure when she and her family were released, but I'm sure it was not an easy process for them to move and set up a new home and coming to terms with the fact that their life before interment was gone. There are only about 30-40  total known Okajima's from this period, and in late '46 the number of books in the collection spikes up once they settle into their new home. Those two years were probably tough, finding work, finding a home, finding a place where they could feel some semblance of a return to normalcy... Late '46 books start to show distributor pencil markings and become consistent (so it seems they had settled in to a home and she found a consistent source for comics).  Just for clarity there are later books with date stamps on the back cover from '47-50 (not consistent), these are from a different stamp than the early '45 books and are post-camp for sure. 

So to answer your question I consider all 43-44 books to be "camp" books. The market seems to treat books with ANY of the camp markings (codes or signatures) as camp books. Date stamped and then unmarked books from 45 may be camp books, but we cant know for sure, and the market seems to not value them as highly, partially because the markings are part of the appeal of the pedigree because they tell part of the story of the pedigree. And as far as my records go the 4xv code is the last code she used. There are no 5s, there are 4x comics (Sensation 35 and Police Comics 36), which were followed by our comics with the 4xv mark. That was the last camp code. 

[skypinkblu]

Thanks,  Charlie.  You should write a book @miraclemet

[miraclemet]

Just now, skypinkblu said:

Thanks,  Charlie.  You should write a book @miraclemet

I think your Superman was only held back price-wise due to the state of the staples and the discoloration around them. Othewise I would have expected it to land well north of $2k even without the "Okajima" -script. 

[skypinkblu]

6 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

I think your Superman was only held back price-wise due to the state of the staples and the discoloration around them. Othewise I would have expected it to land well north of $2k even without the "Okajima" --script. 

I think so too. I bid half of what I had bid for the 28 and won it for less than my bid,,so I was happy . I got the sensation and this one for less than I bid on the 28, so I'm thrilled. I have a few books with the signature. 

[path4play]

20 hours ago, miraclemet said:

6 years ago I missed out on this book. I had just picked up my second  Okajima a month earlier on Clink. This one was in auction, but I was living in Belgium at the time and. If I remember right I woke up too late (it was like 3am local) to get a bid in.

It wasn't listed as an Okajima at the time, and it is still not in a pedigree slab(which I'll be remedying), or even noted with the pedigree by HA. But since I just had to pay well over 3x Overstreet on HA a minute ago (still a great deal) I'm betting I wasn't the only one that knew this books secret....

 

 

Check out the code in the upper right hand corner...

 

Here's the code on the Okajima Superman (pedigree slab, camp code, no signature) that sold on eBay last week... Looks identical.

 

Very excited. And my first military camp era Okajima to boot! 

And you waited until now to tell us?!

Nice eye Miracle.

This is my "code only" Okajima.   Police Comics #36 release date 9/13/1944

 

[path4play]

9 hours ago, miraclemet said:

We cant say for sure cause we dont have a definitive chronology of her life or the camp timeline. 

Roosevelt rescinded internment orders on December 17, 1944. Almost all of the camps were closed by the end of 1945. 

I consider 43-44 books to be camp books, especially if they have either the signature or the code. There are a some late 44 books with neither, but that have a date stamp. The first one is a Mystery Comics 4 with a date stamp of 10-21-44. There are more comics with date stamps in November and December. Once we get later into 1945 she had stopped marking books. Superman #33 has a date stamp of Jan 5 1945 on the front cover and Super Magicians has a date stamp of Jan 16 1945. By February the stamping stops (Wow #33, no stamp, no markings) . I dont have a lot of records of 1945 books, her collection seems sparse at that point,but I need to do some more checking on that year. 

I think 1945 was spent moving around both within the camp system, and then out of the camp system. I'm not sure when she and her family were released, but I'm sure it was not an easy process for them to move and set up a new home and coming to terms with the fact that their life before interment was gone. There are only about 30-40  total known Okajima's from this period, and in late '46 the number of books in the collection spikes up once they settle into their new home. Those two years were probably tough, finding work, finding a home, finding a place where they could feel some semblance of a return to normalcy... Late '46 books start to show distributor pencil markings and become consistent (so it seems they had settled in to a home and she found a consistent source for comics).  Just for clarity there are later books with date stamps on the back cover from '47-50 (not consistent), these are from a different stamp than the early '45 books and are post-camp for sure. 

So to answer your question I consider all 43-44 books to be "camp" books. The market seems to treat books with ANY of the camp markings (codes or signatures) as camp books. Date stamped and then unmarked books from 45 may be camp books, but we cant know for sure, and the market seems to not value them as highly, partially because the markings are part of the appeal of the pedigree because they tell part of the story of the pedigree. And as far as my records go the 4xv code is the last code she used. There are no 5s, there are 4x comics (Sensation 35 and Police Comics 36), which were followed by our comics with the 4xv mark. That was the last camp code. 

Actually, this is the first date stamp (as far as I know) Police Comics #37, date stamp 10/10/44.  Precedes the Mystery Comics #4 by 11 days.

Can't find full scan of slab, will scan and send.

[miraclemet]

27 minutes ago, path4play said:

Actually, this is the first date stamp (as far as I know) Police Comics #37, date stamp 10/10/44.  Precedes the Mystery Comics #4 by 11 days.

Can't find full scan of slab, will scan and send.

Thanks for sharing! Adding to my list. And would love to see a full scan once you have one!

[miraclemet]

44 minutes ago, path4play said:

And you waited until now to tell us?!

[path4play]

7 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

Thanks for sharing! Adding to my list. And would love to see a full scan once you have one!

[sagii]

One of my favorite "Though I can't play, I love to watch anyway" Threads 

[miraclemet]

Newest arrived so I figured a group shot was in order. All camp books. One 2 code, one 3 code and one 4 code

[miraclemet]

Some of these pictures have been posted before, but I wanted to make sure they were recorded with what source info was available with them

#7 - 1942.07.01-Boy reading comic by Dorthea Lange
Part of the Dorothea Lange Gallery here-
https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=CA29BB4E-155D-4519-3E5456896E1C2E6C

COMIC -  Boy Comics (Lev Gleason) #5 (August 1942)


#8 - 1942.07.01-Japanese War Relocation Bank
(Original caption) A view of the bank and newsstand at this War Relocation Authority center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry, July 1st, 1942. (Photo credit: Francis Stewart / UC Berkeley Brancroft Library)
 

#9 - 1942.07.01-Japanese War Relocation Camp July 1, 1942
An example of propaganda created to convince viewers camps were a 'nice' place to live.

(Original caption) Four youth — confined to the War Relocation Authority center in Newel, Calif. — enjoy the latest comic books available at the newsstand in July 1942. In the upper right, issues of Fantastic Adventures (August 1942) and Wild West Weekly (June 20, 1942) await sale.
www.thepulp.net

COMICS - Upper left row-
Uncle Sam Quarterly (Quality) #3 (Summer 1942)
Spy Smasher (Fawcett) #6 (August 26, 1942)
Marvel Mystery Comics (Marvel) #34 (August 1942) x 2

Middle left row-
Target Comics (Novelty) v3 #7 [31] (September 1942)
Feature Comics (Quality) #59 (August 1942) x2

Bottom left row-
Detective Comics (DC) #66 (August 1942)

Upper right-
Something Fantasy

Middle right-
Wild West Weekly

Lower middle right-
Buck Rogers (Eastern) #4 (1942)

Bottom right-
Super Comics (Western) #49 (June 1942)


#10 - 1942.12.10-Japanese War Relocation Camp Dec10, 1942
(Original caption) Pulps — including Thrilling Wonder Stories, Thrilling Adventures, Jungle Stories, Weird Tales, North West Romances and more — hang on the wall and on the shelves behind the counter of the magazine stand in the Granada War Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment camp in southeast Colorado, during December 1942.
www.thepulp.net/


#10 - 1942.05-Tagged for evacuation by Russell Lee
Russell Lee, Tagged for evacuation, Salinas, California, May 1942

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017818140/

Part of 264 heartbreaking photos taken and shared at this link:
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/coll/item/2004673851/

COMICS:
Pep Comics (Archie) #28 (June 1942)
True Sport Picture Stories (S&S) v1 #7 (June 1942)

 

All pictures/data sourced from https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php?topic=7755.0

[miraclemet]

and one more 

#12 - 1943-Manzanar Relocation Center, Cal.-Ansel Adams
(Original caption) Roy Takeno (Editor) and group reading Manzanar paper [i.e. Los Angeles Times] in front of office, Yuichi Hirata, Nabuo Samamura, Manzanar Relocation Center, California
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppprs.00006/

Adams, Ansel, photographer. Roy Takeno Editor and group reading Manzanar paper i.e. Los Angeles Times in front of office, Yuichi Hirata, Nabuo Samamura, Manzanar Relocation Center, California. California Manzanar, 1943. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002696017/.
---
You can read more about Adams' photos at the Manzanar Relocation Center here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3241073/Inside-America-s-forgotten-war-camps-Rare-photos-everyday-life-thousands-Japanese-Americans-locked-internment-camps-U-S-soil-70-years-ago.html

[miraclemet]

These two pictures make me wonder...

We know she was old enough to be working (in or near the camp), did she maybe work at the camp newsstand itself? Did she write her name on copies to "lay claim" to them as they came in? If we knew the frequency of new books coming in to the camp (I assumed weekly, but since we can see that there are "daily" news papers, so its probable that deliveries were made more frequent than weekly, and those deliveries may have included a few comic bundles) we could have an idea.. .

[inhumans]

So this was in the comiclink auction tonight.  Would this be a camp copy? I don't see any notations on the cover.

[skypinkblu]

On 8/26/2020 at 12:49 AM, inhumans said:

So this was in the comiclink auction tonight.  Would this be a camp copy? I don't see any notations on the cover.

The Superman 31, which is approx the same date, has no signature, but it was designated Okajima by CGC. The Superman 28, which was from the summer of 44, has a signature and some camp markings.

I am not sure anyone really knows but  @miraclemet is the expert.

[miraclemet]

On 8/26/2020 at 12:49 AM, inhumans said:

So this was in the comiclink auction tonight.  Would this be a camp copy? I don't see any notations on the cover.

It's tough to say definitively because this is the transition period of her life. 
we dont know exactly when she and her family were released from the Camp
Camps in this time were also relaxing their rules on confinement 

To me I think of books that have the date stamp as transitional. 

They have none of the three "camp" notations (hand written date, "Okajima" --script, camp code) so they dont fall into the definitive camp list, but rather the transition period where she was stamping her books with a date stamp. Was she still in the camp at that point? No sure way to know. It's a late '44 book,dated October 24. The latest coded and dated (hand written) book I have on my list is Shadow Comics v4#7    (date written "9/2/44", code written "4V"    No Okajima on cover). I then have two "4x" coded books Sensation Comics #35 & Police Comics #36 that came out after the 4V book, and then two "4xv" books that are supposedly (based on internet research) hitting the newsstands some time early in October. Those are the last coded books. After that there is a shift to date stamps in October, first with Police Comics #37 that is date stamped "OCT 10 1944" , then Mystery Comics #4 with a date stamp of "OCT 21 1944" followed by this one with the "OCT 24 1944"

now here's the other thing. I use http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/ to help nail down release dates of when something hit the stands, but it's not exact for two reasons

1) No way to know for sure that distribution routes for comics were timely, though with the presence of "daily" papers I dont expect there to be much delay between what hit the regular news stand and what hit the news stand for internment camps. 

2) Mike's not always right. I mean He has the Mystery Comic #4 with an October 27 release date, while Ms Okajima's copy is stamped Oct 21. So we know there's some wiggle room. 

So IS Batman 26 a camp book? Sorta/maybe. The market treated it with some respect since it's probably a $1000 book, that sold for almost $2000. Now that's not a usual camp multiplier, but I think that's because it lacked any of the three "Camp" markings. 

So what was going on? Well in late '44 camps were already beginning to lift restrictions and some people were repatriated as part of "reassimilation" efforts to get Japanese-Americans out of camps and back into society. Was she part of one of those re-patriation efforts in late '44 early '45? No clue, but it's possible. We know that late 44-early 45 was a transition period for her collection with inconsistant markings until she "settled" into a new place with her family in mid-45 and the markings become more consistent (via the distributor marks).

So I guess I would not call this a camp book, but a transition book, which again to me tells another interesting chapter in this collector and collections history because it reveals a bit into what was going in the US at that time. 

Edited August 28, 2020 by miraclemet

[comicnoir]

On 8/15/2020 at 10:42 AM, miraclemet said:

These two pictures make me wonder...

We know she was old enough to be working (in or near the camp), did she maybe work at the camp newsstand itself? Did she write her name on copies to "lay claim" to them as they came in? If we knew the frequency of new books coming in to the camp (I assumed weekly, but since we can see that there are "daily" news papers, so its probable that deliveries were made more frequent than weekly, and those deliveries may have included a few comic bundles) we could have an idea.. .

Incredible documentation and archive.