By Susumu Hiyama

Hakumon Herald was an English-language tabloid launched in November 1956 by members of Chuo University’s English Speaking Society (ESS) as part of their routine activities. Old records tell that it was Japan’s 14th English campus paper.

Down the road, ESS members who took part in the newspaper publication began to distance themselves from their colleagues who preferred to focus on conversation, speech and debate. In April 1963, seven years after the inauguration of the paper, they parted company with the ESS and founded a separate entity, “English Newspaper Association of Chuo University.” In April 1987, the tabloid changed its format to a magazine style. The journal continued to exist for 41 years until its 149th edition in November 1997. Four years after the publication was virtually suspended, the university authorities officially announced the breakup of the English Newspaper Association in September 2001.

For years the copies of Hakumon Herald did not reach old members of the association. Many of them didn’t know their paper had ceased to be put out. That was indeed a sad thing for those who had devoted part of their student life to the continuation and development of the paper. A group of old members volunteered years later to produce a name list of alumni. Their prime objective was formation of an alumni association. After two years of preparation, about 60 old members met at the university’s Surugadai Memorial Hall in November 2007 to launch “Hakumon Herald Association” (HHA).In Japan, this kind of grouping usually calls itself an OB association. But they avoided using the diminutive, knowing that the suspended newspaper had no incumbent student members and that no new graduates would be joining them.

All members were aware that without newcomers, their association is bound for natural extinction with the lapse of time. At the inaugural meeting, some members proposed that the association undertake some commemorative project. They informally agreed to produce a DVD incorporating all scattered Hakumon Herald copies. However, those who took part in the preparatory work learned that the scheme was not that easy. It was in November 2010 that the association held its second meeting to endorse the official launch of the project. The team formed for the purpose had to work without any full-time staff, work room or budget. It took them more than a year and a half to accomplish their project.

This DVD contains all Hakumon Herald editions except two (the 92nd and 94th) that had not been located. It also contains articles contributed by some old members, a chronology of Hakumon Herald and lists of Chuo University chancellors/presidents, contributors both inside and outside the university, foreign student newspapers with which Hakumon Herald exchanged copies, and Hakumon Herald presidents, advisers, editors-in-chief, etc.

Hakumon Herald owed much to President Raizaburo Hayashi and his successors who had offered full support upon its start and during its publication. Old members were also indebted to Prof. Mitsuro Muto and other contributors both inside and outside Chuo University, in particular, Earl Bertrand Russell and Dr. Linus Pauling who had provided the paper with tremendous width and depth, and last but not least to Mr. Shinshow Nakajima who had put himself out to improve the poor English articles done by student writers. We wish to devote this humble work to the repose of those who had gone over to the majority.

(The writer, chairman of DVD Production Committee, graduated in 1960)