[World War II. Japan,] Baker, Frances [Blakemore, , Frances Lee Wismer Baker].

Jeeper’s Japan: [as seen by the occupation].

Tokyo: Toppan Co., Ltd, 1949. First edition. Scarce: OCLC records only 9 copies in US libraries. Includes 24 color woodblock plates. A very good or better copy, bright and clean.450. Color-illustrated woodblock paper boards. Illustrated endpapers. Oblong quarto. 10.5 in. x 7.25 in. [52] pp. unpaginated). Item #17869

Jeeper’s Japan is a souvenir album for Occupation military personnel in Japan, with comical, rhyming couplets to comment on life in Occupied Japan. An introductory note reads: “Before Japan was open to the Western world the Japanese Print was used as a souvenir of famous places within the country […] For that reason ‘Jeeper’s Japan,’ designed to show the scenes of the occupation that are familiar to all who have played a part in it, is done in Japanese print style.”.

Frances Blakemore (1906-1997) was an American artist, specializing in woodblock and linocut printing, who spent more than half of her life in Japan. After studying at University of Washington, she and her husband taught art and English in Japan. In 1940, Blakemore departed from Japan to avoid being interned, and moved to Hawaii for the duration of WWII. While there, she worked for the Office of War Information, producing propaganda leaflets. Thousands of her leaflets were dropped from planes over Japan. In 1946, she returned to Japan and worked for the Civil Information and Education Division of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, where she designed materials to promote the reconstruction project, amidst the occupation of Japan. There, she wrote and illustrated Jeeper’s Japan.

Price: $450.00