XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: whinebucket@comcast.net   
      
   (And cross-posting to r.a.a.m. in case that's all they're following, as this   
   might be a question appropriate for Elsie or Galen also)   
      
   I was reading about Zenna Henderson, one of my favorite all time sci-fi   
   writers over the last few days, and learned that one of the things she did   
   in the decade before her writing career took off was teaching (which was her   
   main profession) at a WW-II Japanese-American 'relocation' camp in her   
   native Arizona.   
      
   This has me wondering, since the time frame we're talking about is from the   
   1940's though the 1960's.  Henderson's best known books were the ones about   
   'The People', humanoid aliens with special powers that ended up crashing and   
   stranded here after fleeing their home planet's destruction and trying to   
   fit in (although she also did a number of stand-alone short stories on   
   similar themes).  As most of us know here, that's a common theme in   
   manga/animes.  So, my questions are:   
      
   1) Do you know if there were such stories in Japanese literature or pop   
   culture before the end of WW-II that might have reached her ears during her   
   camp teaching days, and influenced the stories she produced;   
      
   and, turning it around or seeing if it might have rebounded back,   
      
   2) (and Giles will probably be able to check this easy) did any of   
   Henderson's books have a Japanese release, in English or translated?   
      
   It's probable enough that some of her works ended up there due to American   
   soldiers and others stationed there after WW-II and ended up passed around;   
   and equally impossible to demonstrate they had any influence on the rising   
   crop of storytellers there unless some manga-ka's or artists are on record   
   somewhere citing her or her stories as an influence.   
      
   I'll have to dig out some of her books, reread them, and see if there's   
   substantial similarities to manga/anime annoying alien/magic girl stories.   
   I suspect it's just a curious bit of coincidence, though.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)