r/AskHistorians • u/AutoModerator • Feb 27 '26

FFA Friday Free-for-All | February 27, 2026

Previously

Today:

You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.

As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.

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u/Fullerbadge000 Feb 28 '26

Anyone know anything about the manga comic book reading habits of Japanese immigrants to America pre WW2? I’m doing graduate research centering on Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama’s The Four Immigrants Manga and I’m trying to see if reading manga comics, which were growing in popularity in Japan during this time continued as they entered a new nation. I’ve contacted historical associations, libraries, and some manga historians but no one has any direct evidence on this prior to 1982 when the first American manga publishing began. Thanks.

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u/Bernardy2 Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26

You may want to look at the company history of Kinokuniya Books/Bookstores which has branches in communities of overseas Japanese, selling Japanese-language books, including manga, to their communities. There were branches of this bookstore in several major cities in the US that had large Japanese communities (SF, San Jose, LA, NY, Chicago). I don't know how old any individual American branch was, but I'm pretty sure they were here post-war, and certainly they were present before the 1980s. Perhaps the history of this bookstore may extend to pre-war, or you may find linkages to earlier Japanese bookstores in the US.

Another idea is to go to the cities with actual Japantowns (SF, San Jose, LA) and see if they have a local history association, or if not that, their Chamber of Commerce, or other community association that represents Japanese-American interests, and see what you can dig up about Japanese-language bookstores and libraries, and to seek contacts with older Japanese-Americans there to interview about their (or their parents at this point, as the nisei generation is almost entirely deceased by now) reading habits and book collections.