Chronology of Hakumon Herald

⇒　Japanese

 

Summer of 1955 Naoji Shimada and Kazuo Yamada, seniors at Chuo University and members of its English Speaking Society (ESS), met Mr. Shinshow Nakajima, a veteran journalist with the English-language Asahi Evening News, at a pub near Tokyo’s Shimbashi Station. While talking with Mr. Nakajima, they told him of their impassionate zeal to have an English newspaper published in their school. Mr. Nakajima assured them of his full assistance and cooperation. (He recalls his encounter with the two students in his contribution titled “How Hakumon Herald blossomed” in the January 1968 ninth edition of the newspaper.)
November 1, 1956 Hakumon Herald was inaugurated. Many ESS members volunteered to take part in the project. The newspaper says in its masthead that it is published by the ESS of Chuo University and carries the following names along with their functions:
Honorary President: Prof. Magoichi Uchikata; Executive Editor: Naoji Shimada; Editor-in-Chief: Yoshinori Okawara; Managing Editor: Kazuo Yamada; Copyreader: Yasuhisa Kuwata; Advisers: Tsutomu Yoshida and Shuji Imaizumi; Inspector: Mr. Ryoichi Ichikawa.
When 3,000 copies of the inaugural edition were delivered to the semi-underground ESS room at Surugadai campus from the printing house (Tokyo News Service located beneath the elevated railway near Shimbashi Station), some members found a misspelled word in a front-page headline. President Raizaburo Hayashi’s message of congratulation was erroneously spelled “congraturation.” After a lengthy argument, Shimada suggested someone go out and buy some sweet potato. His idea was to carve “l” seals out of the potato. Members made the seals and changed “r” to “l” using them. The work looked somewhat awkward. Later on, the edition was reprinted for the sake of completeness. The inaugural edition was priced 10 yen. In those days, a cup of coffee cost 40 yen at most shops near the school. The fixed exchange rate was 360 yen per dollar.
The prime motive that encouraged the ESS members to publish the campus journal was to help deepen international understanding and assist Chuo students in learning English. Recalling that all lectures were given in English at “English Law School,” the forerunner of Chuo University, the inaugural edition said in its editorial: “As a language medium in promoting mutual understanding among different peoples and cultures…the advantages attendant to English are surpassed by none because of its universality. It is no vain aspiration therefore that the spirit of the founders be revived and made to prevail throughout the campus.”
April 15, 1957 The third edition starts its “Japanese Classics” column, a series of articles featuring traditional Japanese cultures. Not quite sure it will be a serialization, Kiyoshi Akimoto wrote about “noh” in the inaugural edition. He had done five installments including ones on “kabuki,” “kimono” and “ikebana” before he left school. Susumu Hiyama succeeded Akimoto and concluded the series with the 21st installment on “Japanese literature” in the 23rd edition (January 1960). Other series carried by HH included “On the Screen,” a review of movies (the first one being “High Society” starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra) that began in the inaugural edition, and “Across the Pacific Ocean” that began in the third edition (April 1957) to introduce articles from foreign campus newspapers with which HH regularly exchanged copies.
December 12, 1957 Herald starts “Professor’s Profile,” a new series featuring Chuo’s faculty members, in the 8th edition. This series strangely began with the second installment. The 7th edition (November 1957) introduced some of the faculty members in “A review of professors at each department.” This was apparently counted as the first installment of the series.
May 29, 1959 The 17th edition began the “Letters to the Editor” column to present the readers with students’ opinions on various affairs both inside and outside the campus.
July 1, 1959 The eight-page 18th edition features Chuo’s annual athletic meet. A front-page photo caption reads: “Indonesian President Sukarno was greeted enthusiastically by some 10,000 Chuo students who participated in an annual athletic festival held at the National Stadium on June 7.”
September 25, 1959 The 19th edition discusses in its editorial the proposed revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. Herald took a cynical view of the classroom boycott called by Zengakuren (the National Federation of Students Self-Government Associations), saying, “We have a great deal of doubt about how much the student movement will make progress by boycotting classes.”
November 6, 1959 Herald marks its third anniversary with an eight-page special edition (20th). The editorial on “Policy of Herald” stressed the need to “communicate students’ life and their activities at Chuo University to the students of educational organizations in other countries” and hoped that “a program of exchanging professors and students between Chuo University and those in other countries will be realized in the very near future.”
April 9, 1960 The 24th edition begins the “Hope of this month” series introducing Chuo’s hopeful athletes. In those days, many members of Chuo’s various sports clubs were strong contenders at national championships. The series featured some of them who could be enrolled in the Japanese delegation to the Olympic Games in Rome.
The edition took up smoking in its editorial on “Students’ moral sense” and questioned, “Why do we have to listen to lectures in smoky classrooms?”
November 16, 1960 The 30th edition carried an article encouraging professors to express their views on various issues, indicating that to do so was not in fashion yet in those days. Herald put particular emphasis on carrying contributions made by savants both inside and outside Chuo University. One of the pioneers at Chuo was Department of Economics Prof. Mitsuro Muto who later became frequent contributors.
May 17, 1961 Herald issues a six-page special edition (33rd) marking its fifth anniversary. On publication of an English newspaper, the editorial said one of the toughest problems was how to raise necessary funds, adding that another was how to write news articles in English. It said, “Our aim is, in a broader sense, to contribute to true democracy and world peace by eliminating misunderstandings among peoples and, in a narrower sense, to deepen the knowledge of English among students.” Prof. Magoichi Uchikata, Hakumon Herald president, contributed an article titled “Five years with HH.” The 34th edition (June 1961) says Vice President Kinsho Katayama extended his thanks to Mr. Shinshow Nakajima “who has greatly contributed to HH (as its adviser)” and awarded him a letter of thanks and a gold watch. The 35th edition says that the American movie “Teacher’s Pet” (featuring Clark Gable and Doris Day) was screened on the campus on Oct. 14, 1961 in commemoration of the 5th anniversary.
November 29, 1961 U.S. Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer gives a lecture on “Japan in Asia” at Chuo University. Herald carried a full text of his remarks on page 3 and page 7. Yukio Suzuki, then editor-in-chief, recalls that the ambassador’s speech provided Herald with a chance to become a chartered club independent from the ESS. Showing the envoy’s letter thanking Herald for reprinting his speech, Suzuki met President Koshiro Shibata to urge the school authorities to recognize the newspaper as an independent club. His petition worked, aided by the preparations and arrangements that had been made to that end by his predecessors. Hakumon Herald became a chartered club independent of the ESS on March 23, 1963.
April 23, 1962 The 40th edition starts the “News Focus” series. The first issue it dealt with was “Where does Okinawa go?” which was followed in later editions by “U.S. resumes nuclear tests” and “Laos crisis and Japan.”
June 21, 1962 A revision of Article 9 in the Japanese Constitution is featured in the eight-page 40th edition. It carried opinions opposing a revision, supporting a conditional revision and favoring a revision contributed by specialists outside Chuo University.
September 13, 1962 The 43rd edition carries a letter from Mr. Paul Gapp, an editorial writer on the staff of the Chicago Daily News, an afternoon newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Gapp wrote: “It (HH) is a lively, readable and thought-provoking newspaper, well edited and well written.” He added, “Your newspaper certainly compares favorably with the best college publications I have seen in the United States.”
April 23, 1963 The 48th edition is the first publication by the “English Newspaper Association of Chuo University,” which split from the ESS as an independent chartered club in the new academic year. The editorial on “New start of Herald” in the 52nd edition (October 1963) says: “On greeting its independence, HH is determined to make a further effort to fulfill its mission.”
June 22, 1963 Herald issues a 12-page special 50th anniversary edition (priced 20 yen). It carried the congratulatory messages from President Kihei Masumoto and U.S. Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer. Featured in the edition were 13 special articles contributed by Japanese and foreign savants under the title “How to secure world peace.” Among the contributors were Nobel laureates Bertrand Russell, Philip Noel-Baker, Boyd Orr and Linus Pauling, and Harvard University Professor David Riesman and one-time Ochanomizu Women’s University President Masamichi Royama. Recalling the fact that Royama was the sole Japanese contributor, Kenji Nakadate, then editor-in-chief, said in later years, “We learned that foreign scholars put great expectations on younger generations and respond avid student approaches in real earnest. This differed tremendously from Japanese pundits who disregarded our request and even failed to write back their regrets.”
November 23, 1964 The 53rd edition reports John F. Kennedy’s assassination, quoting a USIS story. It carried an editorial titled “JFK’s death mourned.”
April 18, 1964 Herald marks up its per-copy price to 20 yen in the 56th edition. A front-page article reported that 37 Chuo professors retired as the 70-year-old age-limit system was enforced. The edition began carrying photos of “Women on the Campus” (the first to be featured was Ms Nobuko Endo, secretary to President Kihei Masumoto). The 57th edition (May 1964) began the “Comments from Student Papers” column introducing a selection of commentaries from vernacular campus newspapers published in Japan.
June 27, 1964 The eight-page 58th edition featured the Tokyo Olympic Games. It carried the comments on the Olympic movement contributed by five relevant persons including Tokyo Governor Ryutaro Azuma and International Olympic Commission President Avery Brundage.
October 8, 1964 HH issues a 20-page special 65th edition marking the 80th anniversary of Chuo University. It carried the congratulatory messages from Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, Education Minister Umekichi Nakamura and U.S. Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer, and featured some of the Chuo graduates active in the business, political, judicial and sports worlds. Also featured in the edition were the special contributions made by five Chuo professors, two Nobel laureates Bertrand Russell and Lord Boyd Orr and Harvard University Professor David Riesman.
October 21, 1966 The 12-page 71st edition marking Herald’s 10th anniversary features problems facing the mentally and physically handicapped in Japan. It carried photos featuring the life of the disabled, an article introducing the system for the handicapped abroad and a special article “Why social welfare so cold-blooded?” contributed by novelist Tsutomu Minakami.
Herald took the occasion to publish “A Collection of Essays & Articles,” a booklet reproducing some of the contributions it had carried in the past editions. Takashi Hoshino, one of former Herald staff members who tried to collect the missing editions to be put into the DVD edition, incidentally found that a copy of the booklet is kept at the California State Library.)
December 17, 1966 “Professor’s Profile,” the serial that lasted since the eighth edition (December 1957), ends with the 61st installment in the 72nd edition.
April 27, 1967 Herald accepts Prof. Tadashi Izuno as adviser. He succeeded Prof. Kinsho Katayama who retired upon reaching the mandatory age. The 73rd edition wound up “Across the Pacific Ocean,” the longest serial next to “Professor’s Profile,” and re-started it as “Foreign Students’ Views.”
October 4, 1967 The 76th edition carries a front-page announcement that Herald is participating in the Hakumon festival for the first time, to present a special exhibition under the theme of “Vietnam War & Our Position.”
(Campus unrest at Chuo since 1968) Many universities across Japan were hit by a wave of campus disputes that had began raging around the mid-60s. Chuo was no exception. The dispute at Chuo was primarily over the revision of the Japan-U.S. security treaty, students’ call for self-administration of the newly built “Student Hall” and their objection to the school proposals for a series of tuition hikes. The confrontation at Chuo generally evolved in favor of the students. In a bid to find a way out of the stalemate, the school administrators formed a “Standing Committee” as an entity overriding the Faculty Council. The students took this as a move to threaten their “right of self-government” and organized what they called an “All-Campus Central Struggle Committee (Zenchuto).” The situation developed into an outright confrontation between the school’s “Board of Directors” and Zenchuto as the latter won a mandate from the “Alumni Association (Gakuyukai)” which was in charge of administering the “Day-Course Students Self-Government Association” and students’ extracurricular activities. In 1969, Zenchuto called a strike and put up barricades to block the campus. The school authorities called riot police into the campus and resorted to a lockout to force back the striking students. This brought classes to a complete halt. It took nearly six months for classes to be resumed. In the meantime, most student clubs affiliated with the “Federation of Cultural Clubs (Bunren)” found themselves in shambles as they were locked out of their campus rooms. The campus unrest had a tremendous impact on Herald’s editing and publishing activities. Throughout the campus lockout, staff members had to meet their advisers at coffee shops near Ochanomizu and Shinjuku to have their articles checked. They had to continue their activities in the rooms of the newspaper associations of Meiji and other nearby universities. After the campus lockout came to an end, various student organizations kept on their factional infighting for a while. The situation was more or less the same at other universities across the country, but it went on calming with the passage of time.
At Chuo, however, the student movement revived prior to the school’s relocation to the new Tama campus in 1978. The students were primarily concerned they might not be allowed to have their own club rooms. They were also irritated by a lack of information about boarding facilities and commuting to the new campus. Members of the student clubs at the Department of Engineering, the sole of Chuo’s five departments that did not move to the Tama campus, were angry about their being left behind.
May 24, 1968 The campus unrest intensifies on a global scale. The 97th edition reported on the front page that the school’s 11 directors resigned to take the responsibility for the disorder brought by the 35-day student strike against the tuition hike and that some 100 students were injured in a violent scuffle between rival student groups. Page 2 carried an article on “Intensifying student movements in both free and communist countries” while Page 3 featured a story on “Japanese private universities at a turning point.” Front-page headlines in the 80th edition (June 1968) read: “Campus dispute in full swing” and “Surugadai streets occupied by Zengakuren students.” Page 2 carried a story on “student political movement raging throughout Japan’s universities” while the editorial discussed the “sectional strife” between rival student groups. Herald cut the per-copy price back to 10 yen.
November 19, 1968 Herald issues an eight-page special edition featuring the international antiwar day. The 82nd edition carried “Bertrand Russell’s appeal to U.S.” on Page 6 and a contribution by Mr. Shinshow Nakajima on “Conflicting views aired on Security Treaty extension” on Page 7.
March 13, 1969 The campus dispute heats up. A special two-page edition (84th) reported that “Chuo administration induces riot police to lock out campus,” that “222 students nabbed in the campus rally,” that “Entrance exams held under police guard at Kyoto University” and that “Chuo’s Zenchuto decides to check (entrance) exams.”
May 19, 1969 The dispute at Chuo enters its fourth month. The 85th edition reported that the school administration decided to end the all-campus lockout with the exception of the disputed Student Hall. But a separate story said that the school authorities decided to continue the lockout following rupture of their talks with students held at Tokyo’s Nerima Playground. The edition carried on Page 4 a commentary titled “What is the contemporary university?” Herald brought its per-copy price back to 20 yen.
September 6, 1976 The prolonged campus dispute begins to disrupt students’ extracurricular activities. The English Newspaper Association was no exception. Hakumon Herald had to stop publication for two years and two months after issuing its 96th edition (July 15, 1974). The 97th edition came out on September 6, 1976. The impact of the campus confusion began to appear earlier in late 1969. The number of editions issued per year fell from four in 1969 to three in 1970, two each in 1971 and 1972, and only one each in 1973 and 1974. The per-copy price was raised to 50 yen when the 97th edition came out after the suspension, indicating that the paper faced financial difficulties.
June 1978 Chuo University moves to the new Tama campus (in April upon the start of the 1978 academic year). The six-page 99th edition reported in a front-page article that four of the school’s five departments moved to the campus, located in Hachioji in Tokyo’s western suburbs. It featured photos of the new campus facilities on Page 2 and 3.
December 15, 1978 Chuo’s Hakumon Festival revives. A front-page article in the eight-page 100th edition read: “Hakumon Festival held after 10-year interruption.”
July 7, 1980 Surugadai campus closed. The 103rd edition said in a front-page story that a closing ceremony for Chuo’s Surugadai campus was held on March 22, 1980. The editorial took up the Japanese Olympic Commission’s decision to boycott the Moscow Olympic Games in protest over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
July 3, 1981 The 107th edition carried on Page 2 an interview with Prof. Saburo Ienaga who sued the state over the screening of high-school history textbooks.
November 20, 1981 Herald issues the six-page 108th edition commemorating its 25th anniversary. In his article titled “On the 25th Anniversary,” Editor-in-Chief Toshiyuki Minagawa said the number of editions has dropped to two to three per year from six to eight in the first 15 years. He wrote: “The first reason was the nationwide campus unrest around 1970. Another reason for the stagnation in recent years is a lack of enthusiasm among students to learn English hard. The recent meeting of the Student English Newspapers Association (SENA), convened after a four-year hiatus, was attended by only seven universities in the Tokyo area (or less than half its original members). The situation seems to be more or less common at many other universities. Our important mission is not to bring our glorious newspaper to an end. Our objective is to catch up with our old boys and surpass them.”
December 16, 1981 The 109th edition reported in a front-page article that the number of Chuo graduates who had passed the annual National Bar Examination drastically fell to 58. It said, “Many persons concerned with Chuo’s Law Department were greatly shocked at this poor result.” The edition also carried an article (on Page 5) featuring the activities of a women’s group calling for enactment of a law on equal employment opportunities for both sexes.
July 7, 1982 The 111th edition features the anti-nuclear movement in Japan on the occasion of the “Tokyo Action for Peace” rally held in Tokyo in May 1982.
May 20, 1983 A split in Hakumon Herald? The 113th edition carried a front-page article on the first port call in Japan of the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise and a separate story saying that a Japanese astronaut may go onboard the U.S. Space Shuttle for the first time in 1988. Herald came out in a separate, two-page type-written format dated May 1, 1983, implying that a split might be underway within the English Newspaper Association.
November 30, 1983 Mr. Shinshow Nakajima, who served as adviser to Hakumon Herald since its inauguration in 1956, passes away, aged 75. An English newswriter with the prewar Domei Tsushin, Mr. Nakajima joined the Japan Advertiser, the predecessor of the Japan Times, after the state-run news agency was ordered to disband by the Allied Occupation Forces in 1945. He later joined the Tokyo Evening News (which was later renamed the Asahi Evening News and became subsequently the International Herald Tribune/the Asahi Shimbun) and stayed with the newspaper till his retirement. Mr. Nakajima served as adviser until 1981 (except for ten years from 1970 to 1980 when Chuo was hit by the campus unrest). In an obituary that appeared in the 115th edition (November 1983), Susumu Hiyama, a former editor-in-chief, quoted Mr. Nakajima’s pet phrases: “When the words are placed in articles, in newspapers or magazines, they remain on the paper to be examined…and mistakes stand out like bandaged thumbs on a tennis player. They can hardly be overlooked. Sharp eyes are always searching for mistakes in print.”
April 1, 1984 Herald feels a pinch of staff shortage. The 116th edition carried a front-page story inviting freshmen to join Hakumon Herald as staff members. “If you freshmen really want to improve your English and get opportunities to see the world, come help us at Hakumon Herald,” it said. Help-wanted ads appeared rather often in later editions, indicating the campus newspaper faced a chronic staff shortage.
July 4, 1984 More foreign students choose to study at Chuo. Herald began in the 117th edition a new series introducing foreign students who study at Chuo. This seemed to indicate that foreign students learning at Chuo has been increasing in number. The first installment featured Ms Deliane Berendina, from Utrecht, the Netherlands.
January 20, 1986 Chuo marks centenary. The 120th edition carried a front-page story on the ceremony held on November 13, 1985 marking the centenary of Chuo University. The headline queried, “Do the students really cerebrate?” The 119th edition (May 20, 1985) carried an interview with President Toshiyuki Kawazoe, in which he underlined the need for Chuo to promote interchanges particularly with neighboring Asian countries as part of projects to commemorate its centenary.
February 6, 1987 Herald marks 30th anniversary. The 123rd edition editorial, titled “The student’s view of life,” referred to the material affluence brought about by Japan’s economic growth in the past, and cautioned: “Even if we live in material abundance, feeling so easy in the present stable life, we students should never forget to analyze the present situation and think of such an easy-going attitude.”
April 1, 1987 Herald changes its format from tabloid to magazine. The switchover was initially meant to be an experiment but the new format settled to continue until Herald suspended its publication with the 149th edition in November 1997. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary in 1986, members of the English Newspaper Association wrote some special articles based on interviews, which were intended to be put in the commemorative 123rd edition but actually were not for various reasons including limited space. Explaining the format shift, Editor-in-Chief Kazushi Murase wrote: “Later on, we felt it would be better to put those articles together in one magazine rather than newspaper because the magazine style makes it easier for us to get the message of those articles across in a more concise form.” With the wisdom of hindsight, one might say that the change mirrored what had been going on in those days, diversification of individual values. Students had begun to take a deeper interest in what was happening in Japanese society rather than focusing on day-to-day affairs and events on the campus. Topics and issues Herald took up in later editions ranged from “PET resin bottle” (125th edition), “aging society” (126th edition), “nuclear energy” and “TV journalism” (128th edition) to “acid rain” (129th edition), “mental disorder” (131st edition), “orphans in the Third World” (134th edition), “blood type and character” (136th edition), “AIDS” (139th edition) and “bone marrow bank” (141st edition).
November 3, 1995 Herald marks its 40th anniversary. The 20-page 146th edition carried the messages of congratulations from Prof. Shizuo Satoma, Herald president, and the editors of other student English newspapers, among them those of Aoyama Gakuin University, Seijo University, Sophia University and Toyo Eiwa Women’s University. Mr. Susumu Hiyama, then adviser, sent a special message which, however, was not printed in the edition but was later inserted into it due to editorial mishandling. In his contribution titled “Continuity is the message as HH turns 40 years old,” Mr. Hiyama accounted how the journal blossomed and developed. He wrote: “I associated with most of Herald editors for all these years. They were all good boys and girls. As the paper passes by another milestone, I repeat what I have said to them. ‘Keep going on. Continuity is what really counts’.”
November 1997 Hakumon Herald suspends its publication after issuing the 149th edition in November 1997. In March 1999, the English Newspaper Association, the publisher of the newspaper, submitted its “Activity Report” for the previous academic year to the Alumni Association (Gakuyukai). However, it failed to produce annual reports in subsequent years. Gakuyukai’s Central Committee officially announced the dissolution of the association On September 27, 2001. The 12-page 149th edition carries articles written in both Japanese and English. Recalling the difficulties he experienced in its publication, Chief Editor Takahiro Okuma wrote: “I remember all our members clashed for months with each other in delight, anger, sorrow and pleasure…With the introduction of computers, we could do by ourselves all our (layout and printing) work that we had outsourced before.”