PLENTY TO WATCH

New York: The Viking Press, 1954. Near fine in good plus dust jacket.. Inscribed first edition of the charming tale of a walk home from school through a lively Japanese village, with an original watercolor by Yashima. Taro and his wife Mitsu, real names Jun Iwamatsu and Tomoe Sasako, were antifascist activists in addition to artists; they met in the Japanese Proletarian Artists' League. After being arrested and tortured by the Japanese government for their activism, they fled to America; they took on their pseudonyms when they were hired by the Office of War Information, and later the Office of Strategic Services, to protect their family still living in Japan. They produced anti-military propaganda for Japanese consumption in various forms throughout World War II, including illustrating handbills for dropping over battlefields.
After the war, Taro and Mitsu wrote PLENTY TO WATCH and their other children's books to tell their American-born daughter Momo about life in Japan before the war. Based on Taro's childhood in a small village, this story brings to life all of the active workshops and craftspeople of early 20th century Japan. 10'' x 7.5''. Original yellow publisher's cloth binding with red stamped titles and designs. Original color pictorial dust jacket, awkwardly price-clipped. Pictorial front endpapers with scenes of the Japanese summer. Illustrated in color throughout. 39 pages. Original watercolor artwork to verso of front flyleaf by Taro Yashima of a flowering branch and kanji, signed, stamped, and dated "Dec. 2, 1957." Dust jacket with chipping and wear to extremities; long tear to spine, repaired with tape on verso. Corners and spine ends of binding very lightly bumped, boards mildly bowed. A sound and vibrant copy.