post your internment camp-coded okajima books

[jimjum12]

I only have one Okajima....not from the Camp period. The handwritten arrival date looks to have a similar handwriting style as the earlier books. I'm wondering if the original owner continued to purchase books from the SAME source after reintegration to regular society ? GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

yes, but your non-camp o'jima is THUN'DA 1!!!!!!!!! that will make up for a lot of inadequate coding.

 

 

.... I Frazetta, and with the back story of this pedigree, it may very well be my favorite book that I own. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[vaillant]

But in the case of these books the pedigree is something that I think would interest the average person a great deal. It's ironic enough that any Japanese-American kid would read and collect American comics with costumed heroes mowing down racially-depicted Imperial Japanese soldiers. But to collect them even while you're interned in a camp? Fascinating.

 

@bluechip: That’s precisely what I was thinking about, and you put it down perfectly. :-)

Well, you shouldn’t be so surprised, anyway. We have proof that not only Benito Mussolini’s sons were avid readers of syndicated comic strips (one of the reasons for which the humorous or Disney ones weren’t "prosecuted" and allowed to continue publications more than the others on italian journals), but that the Duce himself used to sing-along some Disney films tunes ("Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf", for example).

 

One of the most fascinating things were the problems strips like Mandrake or Tim Tyler's Luck encountered as their characters started to battle nazism or the Axis powers. We reached the absurd in a story which was re-written in reverse to portray Mandrake – serving the Axis – called in Berlin to locate allied spies.

 

vaillant, cgc doesn't recognize harold's books as a pedigree, but we geeks sure do like them.

I see. Well, I’m not particularly interested in CGC books, but I value the pedigree concept. Would love to find an affordable super-hero themed Okajima book.

BTW, my Harold pedigreed Daredevil Comics is issue 2.

[Straw-Man]

harold liked lev gleason books---there are several harold silver streak's, and i'm happy to have a few of myself.

[vaillant]

harold liked lev gleason books---there are several harold silver streak's, and i'm happy to have a few of myself.

I think I’ve seen yours, they are awesome (a SS #6, right?), but they are too costly for me.

Trying not to stray away too much from the topic you started, I am wondering if the Okajima girl had a copy of Daredevil Comics #10: I am still missing it, and I want hers!

[nearmint]

I don't own this one anymore, but it's a good one...

 

 

[sfcityduck]

Why do you call these books "camp coded"?

 

I assume that "Okajima" was the original owners last name as that's a not uncommon last name for Japanese-Americans.

 

And I assume what you are calling a "camp code" is just the date.

 

Is there something more here that I'm missing?

 

 

 

 

[nearmint]

The owner of the books was interred at a Japanese internment camp during WW2. She continued to collect after the war, so some books were purchased at the camp, while later ones were not.

[vaillant]

Is there something more here that I'm missing?

 

If you check the link FUELMAN gave me when I asked about the collection, there’s the full story (scroll back to page 1).

[Straw-Man]

I don't own this one anymore, but it's a good one...

 

 

 

it's great! and somewhere out there is a mystery comics 2, that i wanted very badly when it sold a few years ago. it went crazy tho', and i've never seen it offered since [i broke my run up since then, and a bidding frenzy these days would have to happen without my participation].

[sfcityduck]

Again, so "camp code" just refers to the date?

 

More of those books might have been purchased in an internment camp than you think, given that depending on what camp she was in she might not have been released until 1946. For example, Tule Lake, where this photo was taken, did not close until March 1946:

 

[sfcityduck]

By Ansel Adams of Manzanar:

 

[nearmint]

The Okajimas continue into the early 1950s.

[Forbush-Man]

Does anyone know the girl's name? Where she was from originally?

[ajaxfarrell]

Again, so "camp code" just refers to the date?

 

More of those books might have been purchased in an internment camp than you think, given that depending on what camp she was in she might not have been released until 1946. For example, Tule Lake, where this photo was taken, did not close until March 1946:

 

 

[ajaxfarrell]

[vaillant]

Great photos (and collage ).

Keep them coming!

[MrBedrock]

Again, so "camp code" just refers to the date?

 

Let's see if I can make it simple so that you might more easily understand....

Camp Code...

Notice all of the writing at the top? Some of that coding supposedly refers to the actually building where she was confined. I doubt a young "Miss Okajima" had penmanship like that.

 

Non- Camp Code...

The coding here is simply a distributor code.

[vaillant]

Notice all of the writing at the top? Some of that coding supposedly refers to the actually building where she was confined. I doubt a young "Miss Okajima" had penmanship like that.

 

@Bedrock: Yes, that’s what I was thinking. Some employee of the camp checking the goods coming in and out for the internet people, or something similar, right?

[sfcityduck]

Again, so "camp code" just refers to the date?

 

Let's see if I can make it simple so that you might more easily understand....

Camp Code...

Notice all of the writing at the top? Some of that coding supposedly refers to the actually building where she was confined. I doubt a young "Miss Okajima" had penmanship like that.

 

 

The only "code" I see on that book is the name "Okajima" and what appears to me to be the date "5-9-44." CA 40 is cover dated 7/44 so a 5/44 issuance date is consistent with the cover date. Is the "5-9-44" on all the comic books regardless of the approximate dates they came out, or are other numbers consistent with dates on other books from the collection?

 

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see anything that refers ot the building where she was confined. Can you transcribe that part of the "code" so I know what you are referring to?

 

The story seems a little implausible to me because the internees obtained their comic books from camp stores. They weren't confined to a barracks like a POW camp, but had freedom of movement within the camp (and actually some were also allowed to take trips outside the camps also). I suppose she might have put her "address" (e.g., the building number she lived in) on the comic, but there is no way that was done by any camp officials.

 

As for the penmanship, back in the 40s kids learned cursive (unlike, in some schools, today) and used it frequently. And the Japanese kids were often excellent students. The penmanship looks like school-girl cursive to me.

[Straw-Man]

there are several camp books posted here. you really only see a date and a name on them? really? and when you do finally see the third component of the "code," you'll not be able to say it's like the church books ultimate number, that relates to how many issues were distributed to the seller, since you say it was a schoolgirl who is doing the writing. we think/understand that the last aspect of the code deals with where she was housed.

 

and tho' it's incapable of proof, i'd bet my hat, and overcoat that it wasn't a little girl who wrote on those books.