“A common story tells that Yamada and I got acquainted with Nakajima-san utterly by chance at a Shimbashi pub. But that isn’t actually true,” confided Naoji Shimada about his encounter with Mr. Shinshow Nakajima back in 1955. None of us had doubted that the casual encounter that the two Chuo students had with Nakajima-san provided a momentum for the birth of the school’s first English newspaper.

 

 All of us who were members of Chuo’s English Newspaper Association, the publisher of Hakumon Herald, know that Shimada is one of the co-founders of the campus journal along with his colleague Kazuo Yamada who died young. In early 2009, shortly after the idea of making a DVD edition of Hakumon Herald was floated, Susumu Hiyama, one of my seniors, suggested to me that I meet Shimada to listen what he had to say about how the newspaper came into being in the autumn of 1956. Toru Miyajima, another senior and Shimada’s junior in high school days, was kind enough to arrange the interview.

 

 Both of my seniors joined me in the meeting that took place one chilly February afternoon that year. “I’m losing my muscle these days,” said the 74-year-old Shimada smilingly as he took us to a coffee shop, a five-minute walk from his house in Tokyo’s Kanda. “So exactly what was the truth?” I asked Shimada as soon as we sat for the interview. Shimada said he and Yamada were working part-time around 1955 at the Asahi Evening News (AEN), where Nakajima-san was a veteran writer. The two students knew that the afternoon paper is printed out well before noon and that Nakajima-san pops in “Yoshiko,” aShimbashi pub, soon afterwards almost routinely to wet his whistle. One day, they went to the pub, saw Nakajima-san there and sat next to him as if quite incidentally. They introduced themselves as Chuo students working part-time for the AEN. The three hit it off with each other as they drank together. The two students passionately told Nakajima-san of their dream to have an English campus paper published at their school and asked for his assistance. Touched by their zeal, Nakajima-san assured them of his support. But he said to them, “It’s rather awkward for us to get down to this business as AEN colleagues. Let’s say we met by chance at a pub.” They came to terms with each other.

 

 I had heard a great deal from my seniors about how Hakumon Herald was created. But Shimada’s revelation was what I heard for the first time.

 

Memories of Prof. Masumoto

   During our interview, we knew of another first about what had prompted Shimada and Yamada to launch the campus paper. We had been told that one of their motives was that Chuo had no English jounal while some other universities had. “Well, that was one of our motivations. But there was another,” said Shimada. He talked about Prof. Kihei Masumoto, then Chuo’s administrative director (who later became president).

 

 One day, Shimada had a chance to talk with the professor at a campus event. Knowing Shimada was chairman of the English Speaking Society (ESS), the professor emphatically told him of the need for Chuo to put greater emphasis on English education. In those days, Chuo was seen to be behind other Japanese schools in English education. It had much fewer English conversation instructors. Shimada himself often heard many people say, “Chuo students don’t do well in English.”

 

 Postwar remnants were still rampant everywhere across Japan in 1955. Hattori Clock Shop and Matsuya Department Store in Tokyo’s Ginza district remained in the hands of the Allied Occupation Forces. Yurakucho, just a few minutes’ walk from where the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers was located, was full of American culture. That atmosphere made students keen to learn English. Shimada said what Prof. Masumoto told him added fuel to his zeal.

During the interview that lasted nearly two hours, Shimada talked much about his memories of the days when Hakumon Herald was inaugurated. Those included how the tabloid was named, who designed the masthead, how they corrected the misspelled front-page headline in the inaugural issue and how the decision was made as to who should write the editorial, who should go out for ad sales and who should be in charge of sports news, etc. The ad rate for a coffee shop was 500 yen when it charged 40 yen for a cup of coffee. The inaugural edition of Hakumon Herald was priced at 10 yen. The school’s annual tuition was 33,000 yen, the starting monthly salaries averaged 7,000-8,000 yen and average Tokyo homeowners charged 1,000 per tatami mat per month for a room, meaning that students paid 4,500 yen for their 4.5-mat room.

 

  Toward the end of the interview, Shimada said he still regretted Hakumon Herald could not adequately reward Nakajima-san for what he had voluntarily done to help its publication. He said he led a futile campaign to have Nakajima-san as a full-time lecturer at Chuo. He said he still remembers Nakajima-san shyly murmured when the school authorities presented him with a letter of thanks, “After all I’m not a Chuo graduate.”

(The writer, whose original family name was Kubo, graduated in 1983)

 

 

◎偶然ではなかった中島さんとの出会い

―ヘラルド創設者が打ち明ける「真相」―

「山田と私が中島さんとまったく偶然に新橋の飲み屋で知り合ったことにな っているけど、あれは実は違うんですよ」――島田直治さんは、1956年の 白門ヘラルド創刊のきっかけとなった中島申祥さんとの出会いについて、この ように打ち明けた。

　

　白門ヘラルドのDVD化計画が表面化してしばらくたった2009年初め、 私は先輩の飛山将さんの勧めで、若くして病死された山田和夫さんとともにヘ ラルド創設者の1人である島田直治さんにお会いし、創刊当時の話を聞いてみ ることになった。島田さんの高校の後輩で、私の大学の先輩の1人でもある宮 島徹さんがインタビューをアレンジしてくれた。

 

　島田さんへのインタビューは同年2月の寒い午後に行われた。宮島、飛山さ んが同席。島田さんは「このところ脚力が弱ってきてねえ」と言われながら、 私たちを神田の自宅から5分ほどの喫茶店に案内してくれた。

「本当はどうだったのですか」との私の問いに、冒頭にあるような島田さん が明かした「真相」は次の通り。

島田、山田さんは1955年ころ、朝日イブニング・ニューズ紙の販売拡張 のアルバイトをしていた。夕刊紙は昼前には印刷が終わる。2人は同紙のベテ ラン記者中島さんが昼過ぎには新橋の居酒屋「よしこ」へ日課のように立ち寄 ることを前もって調べていた。ある日、そろって「よしこ」へ行き、何気なく 中島さんの隣に座った。朝日イブでアルバイトをしている中央大学の3年生と 自己紹介し、杯を重ねるうちに3人は意気投合した。島田、山田さんは大学で 英字新聞をつくってみたいとの自分たちの夢を延々と語り、中島さんの助力を お願いした。中島さんは2人の情熱に打たれ、援助を約束してくれた。その時、「朝日イブでの知り合いということでなく、偶然飲み屋で知り合ったことにし よう」と、中島さんとの申し合わせが成立したのである。私はそれまでに諸先 輩から白門ヘラルド誕生のいきさつについて多くを聞かされていたが、島田さ んの話は初めて知る事実だった。

 

▼升本教授のこと、そして心残りは・・・ 私たちはそこで、島田、山田さんが英字紙発刊を思いついた動機について、もう1つ初めてのことを聞いた。私はそれまで、他の大学に英字紙があるのに 中大になかったことが大きな動機だと聞かされていたのだが・・・「もちろんそ れもあったが、もう1つあったんだよ」と、島田さんは当時の中央大理事長だ った升本喜兵衛教授のことを話してくれた。

ある日、島田さんが学校で升本教授に会って話す機会があった。教授は「英 語学会(ESS)」の委員長だった島田さんに、「これからは中大での英語教育 をもっと強化する必要がある」と力説された。当時、中大は他大学に比べ、英 語教育が遅れていて、英会話の教師もごく少数しか抱えていなかった。「中大生 は英語に弱い」といった風評も耳にしていた。

 

　1955年といえば、まだ日本のあちこちに戦後の名残が強く残っており、 東京・銀座の服部時計店や松屋デパートは依然占領軍に接収されたまま。有楽 町一帯は米国文化一色だった。そんな中で、学生の間にも英語を学ぼうという 雰囲気が強かった。升本教授の話は島田さんの夢を一段と加速させる動機の1 つになったという。

2時間近く続いたインタビューで、島田さんは白門ヘラルド創刊当時の多く の思い出を懐かしそうに語ってくれた。新聞の名前をどう決めたか、誰が題字 をデザインしたか、創刊号の1面見出しのミスプリントをどう修正したか。部 員の間で、誰が論説を書くか、誰がスポーツを担当するか、誰が広告を取りに 行くかはじゃんけんで決めた、などなど。喫茶店の広告料は500円、コーヒー1杯40円だった。創刊号は1部10円。中大の年間学費が33、000円、 初任給が7~8000円、1カ月の下宿代が1畳当たり1、000円だった。 つまり4畳半の部屋なら4500円というわけだ。そんな時代だった。

 

　インタビューの終わり近くで、島田さんは、中島さんがまったくのボランティアとしてヘラルド発行を助けてくれたことに十分報いることができなかった のが今でも心残りだと言った。中島さんを中大の講師として招く運動をしたが 実現しなかった。大学が感謝状を贈ると決めたとき中島さんが「自分は中大で 教育を受けたわけでもないから」と、照れくさそうに言われたことが今でも耳 元に残っていると語ってくれた。(昭和59年卒、旧姓=久保)