Diplomatie

1939 · 180510 — Japan. circa1939. 103 name or business cards mounted on 17 window-faced card leaves a little faded and a few tears in an album 26.2 x 18.3 cm; green linen boards gilt decorated spine a little chipped and rubbed but in remarkable original condition. An album of Japanese name cards collected in the late 1930s apparently by Bruce Rogers who held a post at the University of Oregon. The name cards which are organized roughly in alphabetical order in a purpose-made album offer a fascinating insight into the network of contacts of a western resident in prewar Japan. They include cards presented to Rogers by journalists academics businesspeople diplomats and others. Though quite a number of his contacts are Americans or other foreigners the majority are Japanese. There are three cards from George Albert Makinson 1886-1972 and his wife presented at the time when Makinson was US Consul General in Osaka a post he took up in1938 and a card presented by Parliamentary Lower House member Honda Yoshinari 1871-1952. Some of the cards include inscriptions thanking Rogers for hospitality and one particularly interesting one is inscribed with a message of introduction from a Japanese acquaintance asking for Rogers to be allowed to be present during an air-raid drill in Tokyo an omen of the approaching war. . hardcover