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Utsukushii Kurashi no Techō

Utsukushii kurashi no Techō [Handbook for Life], September 1948

“American Life and Japanese Life” Dr. Shiho Sakanishi was a librarian at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. before her forced repatriation to Japan in June 1942. In this article, she analyzed the comic strip, Blondie, based on her experience living in the U.S. To her, Blondie epitomized American suburban middle-class life. The Japanese, she thought, idealized the daily life portrayed in Blondie because of the material prosperity portrayed there. She wrote,

Blondie, who has a family of four with three dogs and no maid, must always be tired. But she has a radio, refrigerator, heater, phone, stove, coffee maker, toaster, electric clothes washer, and vacuum cleaner [which makes her life so much easier]. . . . They also have access to hot water 24 hours a day. They live like millionaires from our [Japanese] perspective.

 

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Each year, the staff of Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Maryland creates exhibits that showcase materials from the University's collections. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the official naming of the Gordon W. Prange Collection, this year's featured exhibit is Crossing the Divide: An American Dream Made in Occupied Japan, 1945-1952.  The corresponding physical exhibit of Crossing the Divide will be on display in the Maryland Room Gallery in Hornbake Library North, University of Maryland, through July 2019.

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The Gordon W. Prange Collection is the most comprehensive archive in the world of Japanese print publications issued during the early years of the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1945-1949.  It is located in Hornbake Library North on the University of Maryland’s College Park campus.

For general information about the library and our collections, contact us.

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