In this 9” x 12” hardbound volume, author Alan Scott Pate documents the history of Japan’s 58 doll ambassadors, dispatched in 1927 as emblems of international goodwill. Spanning over 560 pages and nearly 400 images, the work traces their transpacific journey, reception, and enduring legacy as cultural artifacts of diplomacy.

Dolls of Friendship tells the moving story of how dolls became silent ambassadors of friendship between Japan and the United States in the late 1920s.

Long out of print, this eagerly awaited second edition contains all the original text and photographs. Also included is a new preface by Sydney L. Gulick, 3^rd, the grandson of the founder of the doll exchange project, and an updated list of the current whereabouts of these dolls based on twenty years of research by many people on both sides of the Pacific.

I am Miss Kanagawa. In 1927, my 57 doll-sisters and I were sent from Japan to America as Ambassadors of Friendship. Our work wasn't all peach blossoms and tea cakes. My story will take you from New York to Oregon, during the Great Depression. Though few in this tale are as fascinating as I, their stories won't be an unpleasant diversion. You will make the acquaintance of Bunny, bent on revenge; Lois, with her head in the clouds; Willie Mae, who not only awakened my heart, but broke it; and Lucy, a friend so dear, not even war could part us. I have put this tale to paper because from those 58 Friendship Dolls only 45 remain. I know that someone who chooses this book is capable of solving the mystery of the missing sisters. Perhaps that someone is you.

Inspired by the little-known Friendship Doll exchange in 1927 between children in America and Japan, here are the stories of three different girls who share the same wish: a hope for peace.

In this publication that accompanied a 2015 exhibition at the Brauer Museum of Art, curator and scholar Terry Kita tells the story of beautiful Japanese dolls created in the early 1920s that came to America as part of a good will cultural exchange organized by an American missionary. This book contains original research on the dolls and is the definitive publication on this subject. The book s lovely design is a nice complement to the precious look of the vintage dolls, five of which were included in the exhibition.

Originally prepared as a companion to an exhibition of six of the Japanese Friendship Dolls and a seminar presented at the UFDC National Convention in Kansas City in 2024, this short volume traces the basic outlines of the Japanese Friendship Dolls of 1927 and their initial tours across the United States, before beginning an in-depth profile into six of these amazing dolls: Miss Fukushima, Miss Kantoshu, Miss Okayama, Miss Nagano and Miss Shizuoka.

Originally prepared as a companion to an exhibition of two of the Japanese Friendship Dolls and a seminar presented at the UFDC National Convention in New Orleans in 2012, this short volume recounts the stories of Miss Kyoto-shi and Miss Nagano as they return to Japan for conservation and commemoration.

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Originally prepared as a companion to a seminar presented at the UFDC National Convention in Washington DC in 2016, this slim volume helps to disentangle the interlaced ambiguities surrounding the correct and specific identities of a number of the Japanese Friendship Dolls, which for many years have been lovingly known by and referred to by a name other than the one they were originally given. It's a complicated knot, which we are only now fully comprehending and untying.

Originally prepared as a companion to a seminar presented at the UFDC National Convention in Chicago in 2010, this slim volume serves as a general introduction to the Japanese Friendship Dolls of 1927, discussing their origins and experiences as doll ambassadors, helping to bridge over with messages of Friendship and Goodwill the seemingly inexorable divide that was propelling the US and Japan towards open conflict.

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The “Japanese Friendship Dolls — History” site by Bill Gordon tells the story of the 1927 doll exchange between the U.S. and Japan, when nearly 13,000 American dolls were reciprocated with 58 finely crafted Japanese dolls. Many were lost during WWII, but surviving dolls remain as symbols of cultural friendship.