[New Methods of Going to America] Shin tobeiho (also transliterated Shin to-Beiho)

Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1912. Later printing. Trade paperback. Very good. One of several guides for emigrants to America written by Shimanuki, the founder of Nihon Rikkokai-the Japan Self-Help Society-a Christian group that helped poor Japanese from rural areas to study and work abroad.

This is the first guide Shimanuki wrote after the Gentlemen's Agreement went into effect, significantly restricting immigration. At this stage, the Nihon Rikkokai encouraged potential American immigrants to study, learn a trade, and develop connections that would allow them to obtain a legal passport for travel to the US. Shimanuki does, however, devote a chapter to entering the US illegally, either without papers or using someone else's passport, but he didn't recommend it (in 1924, the Rikkokai set up a stowaway school in Japan to teach men looking to go to the US how to swim ashore and evade police-see Tsurutani Hisashi's America-Bound, p. 75-78).

Chapters discuss opportunities for students, professionals, farmers, journalists, and for women, both married and single. Shimanuki also describes what to expect during the voyage and when arriving in the US (the author spent six months in the US in the late 1890s but presumably relied upon reports from Japanese in America for this book). The first twelve pages, montages of black-and-white halftone photographs, offer scenes of West Coast cities and Japanese immigrant organizations, businesses, and farms.

Shin tobeiho went through many printings (at least 13 through 1918) and as a guidebook published by one of the most important Japanese organizations to encourage immigration to the US, it was clearly read by many potential and actual immigrants. Nevertheless, it is scarce, with only a handful of institutional holdings.

A Buried Past, no. 124. [2], [12; plates] 10, [2], 7, [blank], 262, [8; colophon and ads].

OCLC: 1911 printing: 44540466 (Washington); 672477014 (Japan); 1021034067 (Japan); 1916 printing: 51520577 (Yale). Fifth printing. A very good copy or better copy in original printed wrappers.