SHŌKŌ, Ahagon; C. Harold Rickard, trans.
SHŌKŌ, Ahagon; C. Harold Rickard, trans.
Hong Kong: Christian Conference of Asia, 1989. First English-language edition. Xiv, 174pp.; illus. 4to; sewn-binding; photo-illustrated card wraps. Moderate bumping to spine ends; shallow dent to textblock fore-edge. Very good. Signed, dated, and inscribed by translator Rickard to half-title.
A Japanese photobook documenting the decades-long efforts of the residents of Iejima, Okinawa to protest the 1955 expropriation of their farmlands by the American military. The copious black-and-white documentary photographs are supplemented by timelines, documents, and historical narratives by Ahagon Shōkō (1901-2002), recognized as one of the primary leaders of the resistance movement. The Japanese edition of this book was first published in 1982; this English-language translation, by a United Methodist missionary who spent three decades living in Japan, is rather uncommon in the trade.