Presented by Discover NikkeiJapanese American National Museum

April 2, 2011Gil Asakawa

From Newsprint to New Media:The Evolving Role of Nikkei

Newspapers

Bill Hosokawa at Cody Enterprise printing the Heart Mountain Sentinel (Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley)

The earliest Nikkei newspapers served immigrant communities with news about each other, and news from home.

Japan is one of the most heavily newspaper-centric countries in the world, even today, with several national newspapers. The main Japanese papers, Yomiuri, Mainichi and Asahi, were all established before Japanese began emigrating to the U.S.

Nikkei newspapers focused over time on JA issues such as fighting Alien Land Laws and discussing the emerging identity of the Nisei and later, Sansei, generations.

A lifeline to a community

1899 – Nichibei Shimbun started by Kyutaro Abiko in SF; evolved into Nichi Bei Times after WWII, and since 2009 Nichi Bei Weekly non-profit newspaper under leadership of Kenji Taguma. First to appeal specifically to Nisei readers after the Immigration Act of 1924.

1903 -- Rafu Shimpo founded by Rippo Iijima, Masaharu Yamaguchi and Seijiro Shibuya to serve Los Angeles Japanese. Henry Komai became manager in 1914 and president in 1922.

1912 – First Japanese newspapers were printed in Hawaii in 1892 but Kinzaburo Makino established the Nikkei voice for good with the Hawaii Hochi, which urged readers to cut ties with Japan. The name was changed to Hawaii Herald in 1942 but reverted after the war.

Have you heard the news?

The Rafu added a weekly English section in 1926 and a daily English section in 1932, and also special English-language Holiday and Graduation issues, reflecting the growing Americanization of the Nisei generation.

During the 1930s other Nikkei newspapers launched English sections, and English-only newspapers such as the Japanese American Courier and JACL’s Pacific Citizen were started. The Nisei were coming of age.

During WWII, the major newspapers went on hiatus, but papers such as Jimmy Omura’s Rocky Shimpo published in Denver, and each internment camp had its own newspaper. The ironically named Manzanar Free Press was publishing within a month of the camp’s opening in March, 1942.

Generation gap

Not just Japanese community newspapers and other “vernacular” press for immigrant communities, but mainstream news companies.

Tribune went through a bankruptcy, so did MediaNews Group, parent company of The Denver Post (coincidentally where Bill Hosokawa worked for four decades) and San Jose Mercury News, also went through bankruptcy.

Major metro newspapers like the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer shut down, and others have gone to printing only on some days (Detroit Free Press and Detroit News).

Nikkei Newspapers and the “vernacular” press in general have been harder hit. The Rocky Mountain Jiho shut down after decades of struggling. Hokubei Mainichi.

Hard times for newspapers

Facebook and other social mediaMy mom watches NHK all day every day on

satelliteWhen I travel to the West Coast I watch Japanese

stations on hotel TVs (to practice my Nihongo)The Internet allows us to read directly both

Japanese and English news sources in Japan: Mainichi Shimbun, Japan Times, Yomiuri Shimbun, NHK in Japanese or English

Blogs: Cultural News, Nikkei Nation, Nikkei ViewNo wonder our community newspapers are having

a difficult time!

How we get the news today

“…To give a voice to the voiceless, to make sure that our community was not taken advantage of, and to reclaim our history.” - Kenji Taguma, Nichi Bei Editor-in-Chief