Utsurikite Gojunen: Burajiru no Nikkeijin [Fifty Years: The Japanese in Brazil]

Tokyo: Raten Amerika Ch kai, 1957. Very good.. [1],114,[1]pp., plus color photographic frontispiece. Original pictorial wrappers printed in brown, tan, and green. Minor wear and dust-soiling. First edition of this rare biographical account of life in Brazil by Kiyoshi Yamamoto, a doctor of agriculture who served as Chairman of the Japan-Brazil Culture Promotion Committee. The work covers "fifty years of progress" among Japanese immigrant farmers and their lives in Brazil, published in Japan to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of "the hard work of our overseas compatriots" in South America. Chapters cover Japanese immigration to Brazil from the beginning, the population of Japanese colonies, the acceptance and status of Japanese emigrants, Japanese farmers and their situation, the state of Japanese commerce and industry in Brazil, the history of racial prejudice in the country (including part of a chapter on the importing of Black slaves from Africa), Japan's restrictions on emigration, as well as a celebratory chapter on Japanese immigration. The Appendix includes information on various Japanese immigration-related associations. According to the printed caption beneath the color photographic frontispiece, it shows a downtown view of part of "The thriving city of Sao Paulo." Only one holding in the United States, at Cornell, with just three copies in Japan, at the National Diet Library, Waseda University, and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies.