Request for cover scans of Okajima Pedigree books with signature 1 1

[jpepx78]

We would like to acquire cover scans of your signed Okajima books for a history website project on Japanese American internment. I am working with Nancy Ukai, the director for the National Park Service (NPS) Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant project 50 Objects/Stories of the American Japanese Incarceration.

Her project will explore the WW2 incarceration of Japanese Americans through a curated selection of 50 objects. For one object, they would like to use an Okajima comic as a way to (1) humanize the history; (2) look at a popular reading material for children in the 1940s, even in the camps; (3) and take a look at her collection in particular. Some of the other objects they will be featuring are: a chair made in a Wyoming camp, a home plate now on display at the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame, a cotton quilt and a pair of Bibles with exquisite drawings and transcriptions made by hand at Poston, Arizona and a WRA photograph.  Images of the artifacts and their accompanying stories will be posted on a dedicated website and the stories shared through short films, text and still photos, audio narration and social media. They plan to launch the project in early 2018.

Here is more information about the project in an interview and on Facebook:

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Patti-Hirahara-and-Nancy-Ukai-on-Asian-Pacific-America_Bay-Area-439691103.html

facebook:  50objectsnikkei

The National Park Service awarded grants to preserve and interpret WW2 Japanese American Confinement sites.
https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/05-13-16b.htm

She saw my photo essay on Japanese American internment and comics and wants to use part of my essay for the Okajima exhibit.

The photo essay and thread is here if you have not read it.

The cover request details:
1. Cover scan resolution requested to be 300 dots per inch (DPI)
2. Deadline for scan submissions is January 15th 2018.
3. Send scans to jpepx78@yahoo.com or PM me your location for me to download scans.
4. Let me know whether you wish to receive ownership credit or wish to receive anonymous credit as "private collector".
5. All signed Okajima cover scans will be accepted however the project director will have editorial decision on what covers to use if there is a space limitation or copyright issues. They hope to use as many covers as possible.

I have reached out to a few board members so we have several examples of the Okajima pedigree available so far but we would like as many examples as possible. She and I have talked several times and she was fascinated with the Okajima pedigree and I am excited someone outside the comic collecting world is interested too. I believe this a worthwhile project about important American history that will present an interesting aspect of golden age comic collecting to a different and wider audience. I always felt the Okajima books were “historical and special”. Nancy is writing an article about the project for the New Years edition Nichi Bei Times now.
Please PM me if you have some comic related questions but if you have questions about the history project, I can give you the contact info for Nancy Ukai. I hope many of you with signed Okajima books can participate. Thanks for your help.

Jeff

 

[vaillant]

Thanks much for your continued effort in studying and telling about this fascinating topic, which is very little known outside the USA.
Going to spread the word about Mrs. Ukai fascinating project on Facebook…

[Sqeggs]

Are you able to capture the scans posted in the Okajima thread or is the resolution too low?

[jpepx78]

15 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

Are you able to capture the scans posted in the Okajima thread or is the resolution too low?

Some of those scans could be used but I think a consistent scan quality would work best for display. Also we wanted the book owner's permission for using scans of their Okajima covers.

[sfcityduck]

Feel free to let Ms. Ukai know that I would be more than happy to let her use an image of a painted New Year's card  depicting Topaz internment camp made by Chiura Obata when he and his family was interned there, if she need additional items.  Feel free to PM me if she's interested and wants a decent scan.

[vaillant]

Very nice!

[sfcityduck]

And kudos to you, Jeff, for helping such a great project and spreading a very interesting bit of comic book history!

[Comicdey]

Guess I should finally buy a scanner that can do slabs.  Looking forward to the project?

[Primetime]

Nice work Jeff. 

[vaillant]

Sharing the posts on Facebook… great stuff! 

[vaillant]

Now you have a few italians liking the page.

[jpepx78]

Hi

This is another request for cover scans of your signed Okajima books for a history website project on Japanese internment since the deadline of Jan 15th 2018 is approaching. I am working with Nancy Ukai, the director for the National Park Service (NPS) Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant project 50 Objects/Stories of the American Japanese Incarceration.

Her project will explore the WW2 incarceration of Japanese Americans through a curated selection of 50 objects. For one object, they would like to use an Okajima comic as a way to (1) humanize the history; (2) look at a popular reading material for children in the 1940s, even in the camps; (3) and take a look at her collection in particular. Some of the other objects they will be featuring are: a chair made in a Wyoming camp, a home plate now on display at the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame, a cotton quilt and a pair of Bibles with exquisite drawings and transcriptions made by hand at Poston, Arizona and a WRA photograph.  Images of the artifacts and their accompanying stories will be posted on a dedicated website and the stories shared through short films, text and still photos, audio narration and social media. They plan to launch the project in early 2018.

Please see the first post in this thread for information links to this history project. So far we have permission for the use of 23 covers from 13 people. I want to thank those collectors for their help in this project.
The 300 dpi scan resolution requirement seemed to a major problem for many people so the art director mentioned he could use any scan resolution greater than 72 dpi as long as the scan is not blurry. Thanks to a few collectors who spent the extra effort to rescan at 300 dpi.

The cover request details:
1. Any scan resolution greater than 72 dpi is requested as long as scan is not blurry.
2. Deadline for scan submissions is January 15th 2018.
3. Send scans to jpepx78@yahoo.com or PM me your location for me to download scans or I can grab existing scans from the forums.
4. Let me know whether you wish to receive ownership credit or wish to receive anonymous credit as "private collector".
5. All signed Okajima cover scans will be accepted however the project director will have editorial decision on what covers to use if there is a space limitation or copyright issues. They hope to use as many covers as possible.

I hope we can get permission to use a few more covers that were posted in the forums. I will update the project progress as I get more info. Thanks.

Jeff

 

[path4play]

On 12/21/2017 at 4:06 PM, jpepx78 said:

Images of the artifacts and their accompanying stories will be posted on a dedicated website and the stories shared through short films, text and still photos, audio narration and social media. They plan to launch the project in early 2018.

Curious as to status of this project, is site up?  Share link? 

[jpepx78]

13 hours ago, path4play said:

Curious as to status of this project, is site up?  Share link? 

Hi

The website is up and there are 6 objects so far. They plan to have a new piece on an object every week throughout 2018. I don't know when the piece on Okajima will be ready but it is still in progress and when I last spoke with the project director a few months ago, she was still gathering background information. They have done a fantastic job in making ordinary objects fascinating with all that background information in a historical and sad period in American history.

https://50objects.org/

 

[Sqeggs]

5 minutes ago, jpepx78 said:

Hi

The website is up and there are 6 objects so far. They plan to have a new piece on an object every week throughout 2018. I don't know when the piece on Okajima will be ready but it is still in progress and when I last spoke with the project director a few months ago, she was still gathering background information. They have done a fantastic job in making ordinary objects fascinating with all that background information in a historical and sad period in American history.

https://50objects.org/

 

Do you know if they have been able to find out any additional information about the Okajima collection?  As I recall, when it was discussed in the Okajima thread there are still some facts about the family and the collection that don't seem to be known.

[path4play]

On 4/8/2018 at 9:35 PM, Sqeggs said:

Do you know if they have been able to find out any additional information about the Okajima collection?  As I recall, when it was discussed in the Okajima thread there are still some facts about the family and the collection that don't seem to be known.

Given the very detailed and thorough write ups on the objects posted so far, seems safe to assume we are going to discover a lot.