Talk:Jun Fujita

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Jun Fujita (1888-1963) was the earliest Japanese American photo-journalist and commercial photographer, actor and poet. He was an actor with the Essanay Movie Company in Chicago. He stared in a major Essanay movie and worked his way up from minor roles in other Essanay movies. He was one of the first Japanese Americans to live in Chicago. He moved to Chicago from a village near Hiroshima, Japan to study mathematics and engineering. To support himself he worked as a photographer for the old Chicago Evening Post and the Chicago Daily News, which was noted at the time for having photographs in the newspaper. The first newspaper photograph appeared in the late 1800's. Fujita started working for the Chicago Evening Post in the 1920's as their only photographer, the Evening Post was acquired by the Chicago Daily News. He was probably the first Japanese American photo journalist, first Japanese American poet and one of the first Japanese American actors. As a poet he published TANKA: Poems in Exile. Today he is almost totally forgotten. He deserves a page in Wikipedia due to his notability. I have placed him on the list of notable Japanese Americans in Wikipedia in the area of News/Media section as well as in Entertainment and Literature and Poetry. Not only is Jun Fujita notable as a Japanese American news, media photographer, but his work is important for the general public not just Asian Americans. After his death in 1963 the body of his work was donated to the Chicago History Museum by his caucasian widow, Florence Carr, before her passing. Jun Fujita's contribution to American society was recognized by the United States government by an act of Congress. He was granted honorary American citizenship at a time when Asian Americans were prevented from naturalized American citizenship by law. This page should fall under the scope of WikiProject Japan, WikiProject Asian Americans, WikiProject Chicago and WikiProject Biography. Jun Fujita was the only person to photograph the St. Valentine's Day massacre, and contributed other notable work to the now defunct Chicago Daily News. He also was a photographer at the the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago. A Google search of "Jun Fujita" photographer lists 700 hits, he certainly deserves to be included in Wikipedia. I will start a stub page and do what I can over the next year to improve the start-class article. A look at Wikipedia's article on the St. Valentine's Day massacre uses his photograph of the St. Valentine's Day massacre, but is not credited to him probably due to the passage of time. The photographer credit is listed as UNKNOWN. Fujita's photograph is also used in Wikipedia in the article on the sinking of the S.S. Eastland without credit. This is not consistant with Wikipedia policy. Dr.Shimoda (talk) 16:19, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Maiden Name of Fujita’s Wife

Section 7, page 2 of this National Register of Historic Places (National Park Service) document cites the name of Fujita’s wife as Florence Carr. That Carr was the wife’s maiden name seems confirmed by the NY Times Obituary reproduced on this page and on the obit on this associated page.Tristan noir (talk) 23:36, 23 November 2012 (UTC)