憂姧60廃擭摿廤偦偺1
A
Glance Back over the Mita Campus (1946-1954)
(From the reprint of the Mita
Campus No.50, November, 1954)
Summary by Suguru Hasui (1956
graduate)
.
When
The Mita Campus had 50th issue the writer was Editor in Chief. I
wanted that
it
should be a commemorative issue and tried to trace the history from the past
issues
and
the memories of Prof Kiyooka.
However,
I was so enthusiastic to meet personally the legendary person of the founder
Mr.
Susumu Ohya, I dare visited his home in Komaba and succeeded to collect many
facts
about starting the Mita Campus.
The
idea of publishing an English newspaper in Keio first flushed upon Mr. Ohya乫s
mind.
He was the chairman of KESS, He saw the Waseda Guardian, the only student
English
paper in Japan at that time on the occasion of ESS conference at Waseda.
Mr.
Ohya and his colleague Mr. Horie jointly asked Prof Kiyooka for the assistance
to
start
the newspaper. Prof Kiyooka consulted with Mr. Shinichi Hasegawa, alumnus
and
the founder of the Mita Shimbun, and he was a staff writer of the Nippon
Times(now Japan Times) the only English newspaper publication in Japan.
At
this time, nobody would recall the economic condition of Japan. It was just after the war no money, shortage
of food, no clothing and especially the papers for the newspaper was difficult
to obtain. Mr. Ohya had to start the business from nothing.
Mr.
Ohya had talked with Mr. Hasegawa and could arrange that Nippon Times would
print
some thousand papers on the basis of payment after the papers were sold.
It
meant if Ohya could not sell the newspapers he would not be able to make
payment.
Prof.
Kiyooka later told me it was a reckless attempt but praised they had courage.
Thus
the first paper appeared on August 15, 1946 just one year after the war ended.
The
members of KESS tried to sell the papers to the students but it was in the
midst
of
summer holidays and no students around in the campus.
Then
they went to Ginza intersection where many American soldiers (GI) were around
The
Hattori building(Wako at present) which was PX at that time where only the
occupied
military personals or civilians were permitted.
As
long as the English publications were almost none, they were hungry with the
English readings. And surprisingly all 2000 copies had been sold out in three
days.
It
is interesting story how the newspaper named as the Mita Campus. There were two
possibilities,
one was Keio Campus and the other Mita Campus. As a result of the poll,
by
KESS members the Mita Campus was adopted which was proposed by Mr. Ohya.
In
the first issue, Mr. Ohya mentioned to the reader as follows; 乬The Waseda
Guardian
is
already published as Japan乫s first college newspaper in English, however,
there were
few
writings of the students and the articles were written by professors or notable
persons.
No wonder it was published by the strong support of Prof Idditi of Dept of
Commerce.
On the contrary, the Mita Campus aimed to be an English periodical of the
students,
by the students and for the students. It was by this spirit that the Mita
Campus was subtitled 乬The Students own Periodical in English乭
Concerning
the English collegiate newspapers besides Waseda and Keio, I found out
that
there had existed several as follows: The Rikkyo Echo, Meiji Trojans, Aoyama
Chronicle
and some others which I do not remember.
In
the autumn of 1955, I called those publishers exchanged information etc and
finally
established
乬Student
English Newspapers Association乭 under our leadership.
(SENA)
The
Mita Campus held subtitle of Keio English Speaking Society until 4th
issue in 1947
But
after that it was eliminated. Which means the paper became independent from any
organization.
Later the Mita Shimbun and the school authorities perhaps Dept of Journalism
publishing Keio Daigaku Shimbun tried to absorb the Mita Campus but they refused
the proposal in spite of the financial difficulties.
In
1947, Mr. Ohya attended the America-Japan Student Conference (ISA) where he
showed
the Mita Campus to all the overseas and domestic delegates and this provoked
interest
and helped publicizing the newspaper. Also, Prof Mikio Hiramatsu, who acted
as
coordinator and adviser of the Mita Campus and Chairman of International PEN
club,
started the practice of exchanging copies of collegiate newspapers to the
libraries
and
university newspapers abroad. In the International Division headed by Prof
Kiyooka there were many foreign college newspapers files.
Until
about 10th issue, the paper was the collection of English writings
but with the establishment of Editorial, Voice of Youth, Art/Movie/Theatre, and
the various unique
feature
articles, it had become more newspaper like paper.
The
5th and 10th introduced 乬700 Year Climatic Cycle Theory乭 by Prof Nishioka which
was
found by Prof. Huntington of Yale University who had a similar theory and this
had
developed an international relations of both professors as well as the society.
Thus
The
Mita Campus helped Prof Nishioka become famous internationally.
On
the 90th anniversary of the Keio University, the then emperor (Showa
Emperor)
was
present at the ceremony for the first time to the private university. A staff
writer
of
the Mita Campus was brave enough to approach him and asked a comment what he
thought
about the private university and the emperor replied he hoped for the future
development
of Keio. Further contacts were prevented by the guard or police and at
that
time it was extremely difficult to approach the imperial families.
From
the 1st to 12th the paper was a tabloid but changed to a
regular newspaper size in
two
pages but again returned to tabloid from 31st which featured
Keio-Waseda baseball
game
special issue. At that time, this traditional match was most popular baseball
game more than the present professional game, and many funs were waiting from
morning
in
very long line outside the stadium to get tickets. The members of the Mita
Campus
tried
to sell the newspapers to the funs but no record of successful sales.
In
1952, the Mita Campus elected the first women editor in chief, whose name was
Miss
F.Samejima.
There were not many co-eds at that time but the Mita Campus once had co
-ed
group which expressed comments in the paper from standpoint of women, but it
was
abolished
by the first women editor in chief. She is now in the University of Tennessee
as the professor of computerize psychology. There were number of excellent
co-eds in the
Mita
Campus some remained as professors.
When
the headline of 50th issue, I presented the draft to Prof Kiyooka as
乬Celebrating
50th issue乭 he showed this to Mrs. Kiyooka
and she revised to 乬the Jubilee Issue乭 and I
first
knew the meaning of Jubilee.
Once
Prof Kiyooka received a letter from the editor of New York Times. Mr. Arthur
Sulzberger speaking highly of the achievement of the Mita Campus. The praise by
the
Editor
of the leading American newspaper was a surprise and honor to the school
authorities. Also I was told that the Mita Campus was brought up by the
magazine
乬New Yorker乭 but it was only the news that it
was surprising for the Americans to see
the
Japanese college students publish newspaper in English in Japan. Perhaps it was
brought
up only from the curiosity.
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