Ralph Coleman Jr. Tokyo Blues Memoir, 2009-2015

This collection consists of two copies of Ralph Coleman Jr.'s self-published memoir, Tokyo Blues (2009), as well as four electronic files used in publishing the book. These four files are all PDF documents derived from InDesign originals in October 2015. The electronic files include two complete copies of the memoir's text, one of which also features the book's final cover and interior plates. A third PDF is of the cover only, and a fourth contains the plates (twenty-four photos with captions) used in the book's interior. These files are available upon request.

Tokyo Blues: A Remembrance of Japan and the Far East Air Force, 1954-1956, was printed by Printing Today and features book design by Morgan Ryan-Smith. Following an opening chapter recalling his upbringing and college years in Corvallis, the volume primarily recounts the two years that Coleman spent in Japan as an Air Force Base Contracting Officer. In this, the book specifically focuses on work that the United States armed forces conducted while helping to rehabilitate Japan from the destructive aftermath of the second world war.

Coleman's memoir likewise traces his own maturation as a young man living and working in an environment that was radically different from the Oregon that he had known growing up. As noted in the memoir's introduction, which is written by Chuck Thompson, the book includes "anecdotes of Japan and Cold War Asia [that] bring to life everything from American B-29 spy planes sparring with Soviet MiGs over the Sea of Japan, to explorations of the hidden realm of Japanese bathhouses, hostess bars, hot springs resorts, and off-beat places..."