[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Documenting the First Visit by Japanese Canadians to Japan Following World War II]

[Various locations in Japan: late, 1953. Very good.. [12] leaves, illustrated with thirty-eight photographs, almost all vernacular and all in mounting corners, with the first five leaves covered with manuscript signatures and annotations, plus eight family photographs laid in. Contemporary red cloth, gilt titles on front cover, string tied at top of spine (bottom string tie lacking). Minor wear. A few empty mounts, but the overwhelming majority of the photographs present and in great shape. A unique annotated vernacular photograph album documenting the first visit to Japan by Japanese Canadians following World War II. A newspaper clipping pasted into the album pictures the members of the trip spread out in front a Canadian Pacific airplane, with the caption reading, in part: "ALL SET TO GO, above, are the fifty-seven members of the first postwar JC tourist group to leave for Japan. The party left Vancouver aboard a chartered CPA plane on Dec. 1st, and arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo early Dec. 3rd.... The group is touring Tokyo, Nikko, Kamakura, Hakone, Atami, Ise, Kyoto, Nara, and is scheduled to disband in Osaka on Dec. 13." The group traveled to Japan just a year after American occupation of Japan came to an end, and when the country was returning to self government and self determination.

The first eight pages of the album are filled with manuscript signatures and both short and long inscriptions from more than thirty of the members of the traveling party. The inscriptions are written in both English and Japanese, with the English inscriptions coming from men and women across Canada, mostly British Columbia but also Montreal and Toronto. In addition, three of the travelers hailed from Washington in the United States. English signatures include Victor and Lillian Iwata, Mrs. Ika Kato, Mrs. Kazuko Takeshito, Hideo Naeda, Harry Mujimoto, and Yutaka Ikani, among others. The presence of the signatures of so many members of the expedition practically constitutes an autograph book of the trip.

The vernacular photographs in the present album picture numerous members of the traveling party, in many group shots as well as smaller photographs. The men and women are featured in various Japanese cities such as Yokohama, Tokyo, Kiyoto, Kamakura, Atami, Pearl Island, Kegon-no-Taki, Nikko, and Nara. A group photo taken in Tokyo on December 4, 1953 has a printed inscription in Japanese that identifies the subjects as a "Canadian Tourist Group." Printed captions on similar group shots in Kamakura and Kyoto indicate much the same. Some of the images picture Japanese friends and relatives living in Japan, and some images are likely a combination of Japanese citizens and Japanese Canadian visitors. The album cover is printed in Japanese, and translates roughly to "Record of Yasukuni Visit -- Japanese Transportation Corporation." A wonderful memorial of a return to Japan for many Japanese Canadians following World War II, and a fantastic combination of travelers' signatures and original photographs documenting the visit. We have never seen any material documenting the return of Japanese Canadians to Japan, much less from their very first journey back after the cataclysm that World War II wrought on the homeland.