For a novel of San Francisco in the 1930's I'd like to know what cargo incoming Japanese freighters carried. Where could I find out?

(The idea is that a strike has held up the ships in the bay, and the sailors are financing their shore leaves with goods pilfered from the hold. What would they be pilfering besides saki?)

-- Brian Good (jsgood75@stanfordalumni.org), March 31, 2004

Answers

Cool plot, essence of Harry Bridges' world. The first image that comes to my mind, even though it was Chineese and set in the fifties, is the movie 'The Flower Drum Song'- might give you some ideas.

Let's see: pearls, china, bric-a-brac, ivory, figurines, opium, silk, fireworks, jade, toys, spices ($affron) and the big one - contrabane/stolen artwork or national treasures. I might be wrong but I think Japanese freighters would have been importing items from all over the Far East, not just exports from Japan.

Let us know when you gets published!

-- will (willstaiger@yahoo.com), March 31, 2004.