Citizen 13660
New York: Colubmia University Press, 1947. Very Good - / Very Good -. Item #32831
New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. Second Printing. Octavo (24cm); illustrated dust jacket with $3.00 price intact; boards in decorated gray cloth; blue topstain; [vi],209pp; illustrations throughout. Jacket shows a few chips and tears along edges, with a longer tear along bottom of front flap fold and chipping / tearing to spine ends with brief loss of text, toning to rear panel, and fading to spine. Boards bumped at corners and spine ends with a bit of toning at tail. Pages toned along edges with a few showing shallow seepage from topstain into upper margins, but not touching text or illustrations. Generally musty, but with no signs of damp. Binding is sound; a Good to Very Good copy.
Graphic novel by the American artist and writer based on her and her brother's forced relocation to the Tanforan and then the Topaz internment camps for Americans of Japanese descent and Japanese immigrants under FDR's Executive Order 9066. A stirring and maddening document from one of the darkest times in American history, Citizen 13660 shows the dehumanizing effects of the Executive Order while Okubo builds a record of the experience (cameras were forbidden) and shows the happiness, humor, and pain of the community as they struggle to process and understand their detainment and persecution. Okubo worked as an artist and educator for the rest of her career, highlighting the importance of female artists and emphasizing the role of the artist in war.
Kristine C. Kuramitsu. "Internment and Identity in Japanese Art." American Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Dec., 1995), pp. 619-658.
Price: $500.00