Zuiunsha Publishing Company in Tokyo, Japan is planning to re-release "Chibikuro Sambo" [Little Black Sambo] on April 15th, 2005. We strongly protest the publishing and marketing of this book. We demand that Zuiunsha stop the publishing and marketing of "Chibikuro Sambo".
posted by Protest Chibikuro Sambo at 9:21 PM
446 comments
A writer's death can do wonders for pushing that back catalog. Less drastically, a few books acquire cachet by getting banned.
Which may help explain why a reissue of "Little Black Sambo," a turn-of-the-20th Century illustrated children's book with a reputation for racism, is back on the best-seller lists in Japan.
...
In April, Zuiunsha, a small Tokyo publisher, bet there was still a market for a book that had charmed Japanese youngsters who as adults were unable to find it for their children.
The market agreed. Zuiunsha reportedly has sold 95,000 copies in two months since offering "Chibikuro Sambo." Despite being a child's read at a thin 16 pages, "Sambo" is among the top five adult fiction best sellers at major Tokyo book chains.
"Some people buy it out of nostalgia," explained Tomio Inoue, Zuiunsha's president, who in picking up the rights gambled he wouldn't face a backlash for breaking the informal ban.
So far, "Sambo" has returned to shelves with few objections in a country where blacks are rare. There has been one complaint published in an English-language newspaper, written by a black resident in Japan. An online petition against the publisher garnered 262 signatures.
That is a far cry from 1988, when a mostly American campaign drove the book off Japanese shelves.
At that time, Japan's go-go economy was perceived to be a threat to the United States. Japanese leaders feared the book was adding a culture war to the trade disputes.
Kazuo Mori, a psychologist at Shinshu University in Nagano, said most Japanese were surprised to learn that "Little Black Sambo" had racist overtones.
"It never occurred to us," he said. "It was just a story."
...
"The Japanese people can be racist when it comes to Koreans living here," Mori said. "But racist against blacks?
"We have no experience in dealing with black people Where would we get it from?"
posted by Protest Chibikuro Sambo at 3:03 AM
46 comments
Our company recently revived the publication of the classic picture book The Story of Little Black Sambo. It was sold in Japan by Iwanami Shoten Publishers from 1953, and including the original version put out by the same publisher, it appeared in a total of forty-nine different editions until 1988, when it went out of print. Iwanami alone sold about 1.2 million copies of the book, and it became a best seller, read by a large number of adults as well as children.
The story goes as follows. A little boy named Sambo encounters some tigers in the jungle. Each time he is about to be eaten by one of them, he finds a clever way to outsmart the creature and escapes. In the end, the tigers fight among themselves and as they chase each other around a tree, turn into butter. Sambo asks his mother to make pancakes with the butter, and he and his family eat their fill. It is an amusing, imaginative tale.
One day a certain organization protested to Iwanami, saying the book was discriminatory towards black people. Without consulting the editorial staff, the company decided, in just four days. to stop publishing the book and suspended sales. The main reason for the protest was that the names of the characters were perceived to be discriminatory. In this way, the book disappeared from the bookstores without a word of explanation to the readers.
Are the names “Sambo” and “Jumbo and Mumbo,” the parents’ names, in fact discriminatory? In order to answer this question, let us first look at the circumstances under which the book was created. The author, Helen Bannerman (1862-1946), was an Englishwoman and lived for many years in India with her doctor husband. The Story of Little Black Sambo began as a hand-done version, which she made in 1898 to send to her children whom she had to leave behind at a summer retreat in the mountains. As soon as the book was published the following year, it became popular not only in England but worldwide.
Those who say the name Sambo is pejorative claim that it is not a common name in India and that it originates with the _expression “mumbo-jumbo.” In fact, the name Sambo is often found in northern India and Tibet and means “good” or “excellent,” an appropriate name for a boy who was able to find his way out of any predicament. His mother’s name Mumbo means “much” or “bountiful,” and Jumbo, his father’s name, means “gentle” or “great world.” They were both well thought out, wonderful names.
Critics also say that the people in the illustrations by Frank Dobias are too dark-skinned to be Indian. But it was his bold use of color and stylistic touch that left a strong impression on the readers. We could understand why so many people requested that his illustrations be used in the republication of the book.
For parents, it is only natural to want to read or give books to your own children that you yourself loved and had read to you as a child. We have made the republication of classics one of the cornerstones of our business. We find it meaningful to reexamine children’s books that have gone out of print for certain reasons and then republish those that are worthy of being handed down to future generations. Freedom of speech and of the press are protected, and the true spirit of the book will become clearer through the debate inspired by the book’s reappearance.
Of course, we understand that behind the suspension of the sales of The Story of Little Black Sambo was the global movement to end racial discrimination against black people. Because this book continued to be read worldwide into the 20th century, there was a tendency to associate it with the African-American struggle for equality, although it was written by an Englishwoman about an Indian protagonist. Certainly, severe prejudice against black people still exists, and it is our hope that racism will disappear as soon as possible from this world.
Nevertheless, seventeen years have passed since Iwanami Shoten Publishers put the book out of print, and we can all probably agree that social climate has improved dramatically since then. Racist attitudes are disappearing, and it is satisfying to see large numbers of black people playing an active role in various fields internationally. Can we honestly say that many of the children who read The Story of Little Black Sambo discriminate against black people because of the book’s influence? We should have more faith in the children of Japan.
Many complications arose during the process of reprinting this book, and much energy was expended. But we were encouraged by the voices of the many readers who looked forward to the event and as publishers, are thrilled to make the book available to them again. At the same time, we hope that one day there will be a time when books will no longer disappear from our bookstores for unacceptable reasons or without adequate discussion because of verbal “witch-hunting.”
posted by Protest Chibikuro Sambo at 6:57 PM
46 comments
posted by Protest Chibikuro Sambo at 6:40 PM
46 comments
posted by Protest Chibikuro Sambo at 3:22 AM
0 comments
