[Hundred-year Old Cherry Blossoms in North America, Books I and II] Hokubei hyakunenzakura

Tokyo: PMC Shuppan, 1984. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. A reduced-size reprint in four books of Ito Kazuo's two-volume oral history of Japanese immigrants in the United States.

"A recent volume on the history of the Japanese in the Pacific Northwest, including those in British Columbia and Alaska. Based upon interviews and personal accounts, it is essentially a social history of the Issei viewed through their own eyes. Organized topically, it has vivid Issei recollections of working in the railroads, lumber mills, mines, Alaskan fisheries and canneries, and other subjects. Includes sections on Japanese women, stowaways, and prostitutes"-A Buried Past, 283 (for the first edition of the first volume).

"A collection of anecdotes, Issei reminiscences, and excerpts from diaries on the prewar immigrant lives in the Pacific Northwest as a sequel to no. 283"-A Buried Past II, no. 1557 (for the 1972 first edition of the second volume).

Ito was a journalist for the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in Tokyo. In the 1960s, he became interested in the Japanese American immigrant experience and began collecting anecdotes with the idea of publishing a book. The Japanese American communities in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, enthusiastically embraced his idea and coordinated the collection of poetry, diaries, memoirs, and photographs. They also raised funds for the publication of the books that resulted.

Four volumes: 1140, 452 pages, including maps and plates. Illustrated with in-text halftone photographs, too. A near fine set, in dust jacket and the original cardboard slipcase.