A Thoughtful Find｜ Books ｜CRUISING J-TOWN: JAPANESE AMERICAN CAR CULTURE IN LOS ANGELES

A visual history of Japanese American car culture in Los Angeles, from gardeners’ trucks and family sedans to hot rods and race cars.Cruising J-Town: Japanese American Car Culture in Los Angeles explores how generations of Japanese Americans in Southern California shaped, and were shaped by, local automobile cultures and industries: from desert lakebeds to concrete speedways, gas stations to design centers, souped-up import tuners to humble gardening trucks.
Along the way, cars and trucks became literal and figurative vehicles for Japanese American self-expression, social mobility, community identity, and much more. Cruising J-Town is driven to explore how these diverse relationships between people and the world of cars have steered the Nikkei community’s American stories across the generations.Interviews and oral histories chronicle the people and stories behind how Japanese Americans have played vital roles in countless car scenes throughout the region, and is filled with vintage and contemporary photographs, drawings, and ephemera that bring the story to life.

276 pages
Hardcover
Brand:Gibbs SmithSKU:127868Tags:Author_Artist_Dsgnr:BY OLIVER WANG, Author_Artist_Dsgnr:FOREWORD BY GEORGE TAKEI, BOOKS, BrandName:Gibbs Smith, CAR CULTURE, CARS, Class:ASIAN, Class:JAPANESE, JAPANESE, JAPANESE AMERICAN, Subject:JAPANESE CULTURE