Featured Posters and Wall newspapers: Akarui mado

The posters and wall newspapers have been digitized and are available here. In the Featured Posters and Wall Newspapers series, we will share interesting posters/wall newspapers with you. 

Today we are featuring “Akarui mado/明かるい窓” No. 1, published by Hoppo Minsei Kyokai/北方民生協會 in 1948.  The Prange Collection holds issues 1 – 9 ([April] 1948 – November 1948).  They are all 55 x 76 cm and color-printed.  Issues 4, 6, 7, and 8 are maps of Hokkaido entitled, “Watashitachi no Hokkaido/私達の北海道.”  

The first issue dedicates considerable space to spring-related events, such as cherry blossoms and herring fishing, as well as other agricultural topics.  It also includes educational information for school-age children, a comic strip, poem and a short essay written in Romanji, and, interestingly, an advertisement for a school-use PA system.  Though there is no exact publishing date printed on this issue, we can deduce that it was published in April 1948, as the second issue was published on May 1, 1948.  

The poster is available full-text here.

Featured Posters and Wall newspapers: Gakko Shinbun

The posters and wall newspapers have been digitized and are available here. In this new series, Featured Posters and Wall Newspapers, we will share interesting posters/wall newspapers with you. Stay tuned!

Today we are featuring “Gakko Shinbun/學校新聞” [School Newspaper], published by Fukawa Elementary School in Fukawa-cho, Otsu-gun, Yamaguchi Prefecture.  Published in May 1948, this is the inaugural issue. The editor is “Social Studies group, 6th grade.”  It is 55 x 39 cm, handwritten, and double-sided.

Two letters written by Fukawa Elementary School personnel were submitted with the newspaper to the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD).  According to the letters, this newspaper was to be published monthly, with only one copy produced that would be handwritten by students or teachers.  Therefore, the letters ask, do they still need to submit the original newspaper?

On the front page, there is a report on the entrance ceremony (April), news from the nurse’s office, and a reminder for the beginning of the Summer Time.  It also covers local news, such as maintenance work being done on a local train station and new construction on a courthouse in town.  The second page is devoted to student essays, haiku, other poems, and illustrations.

The newspaper and the letters are available full-text here.

On this day in 1947… (July 2)

This post is part of a continuing series on the Censored Newspaper Articles (CNAs).

On July 2, 1947, Yomiuri Shimbun submitted an article to the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD) with the headline, “縣會を顧みて [Looking back on the Prefectural Assembly] (Prange Call No. 47-loc-0341).  Within this article, was a short anecdote entitled, (“縣会こぼれ話” [Prefectural Assembly Gossip]). This section was suppressed.

The account was as follows:  A reporter and Vice Governor Fukunaga were chatting about dances in front of the Prefectural Assembly Building. An assembly member exited the building, and the reporter asked him why Prefectural Assembly members don’t dance.  The member, referred to as “a stubborn Socialist,” was furious and said, “I hate dancing. I am even tempted to cut them down into two by a sword if I see a young man and woman dancing together in a hall.”

The reporter suggested that this assembly member was backward — “He doesn’t know the modern world, unlike a member of a great political party.”  The reporter also surmised that he may have been angry because a building that he wanted to use as his office, had instead become a dance hall.

The Japanese galley proof (an entire newspaper page) and a small CCD memo slip are available onsite in the Prange Collection and onsite at the National Diet Library of Japan (NDL) through NDL’s Digital Collection.

Guidebook to Yokohama

Prange Call No. DS-0983

“How to see Yokohama” [編輯望月隆治/henshu Mochizuki Ryuji (Prange Call No. DS-0983)

“How to see Yokohama,” published by Yokohama Kanko Kyokai/横濱觀光協會 in 1947, is a bi-lingual (English & Japanese) visitor guide to the city.

In a addition to short descriptions of tourist attractions such as Gumyoji/弘明寺 and Isogo beach/磯子海岸, it also includes general geographic and statistical information about Yokohama. Two pages are devoted to cabarets — Cabaret NewYorker and Cabalet Sakura Port among them.  The sheet music for Minato no uta/港の歌 and Yokohama Brues/ヨコハマブルース appear on the last two pages.

This book has been digitized.  In addition to being available in digital form at the University of Maryland, it is also available onsite at the National Diet Library of Japan (NDL) through NDL’s Digital Collection.

The Prange posters & wall newspapers have been digitized!

The posters (68 items) and wall newspapers (208 items) in the Prange Collection have been digitized and are available here!  Check them out!

The posters in the Gordon W. Prange Collection were used primarily to promote public health and safety, for instruction in the classroom, to advance political messages (including messaging by labor unions), and for advertising. They were published by local governments, labor unions, and educational organizations.

The wall newspapers were published throughout Japan. They were intended for posting in public places, such as train stations, workplaces, and classrooms. Some were hand-painted, others were printed. They are part of the larger collection of newspapers in the Prange Collection that were microfilmed in black and white during the 1990s.

An Interview with Kurt Steiner from the Marlene J. Mayo Oral Histories

This post is a part of the series featuring interviews from the Marlene J. Mayo Oral Histories.  A majority of the transcripts of the interviews are now available in the University of Maryland Libraries Archival Collections.  For other featured oral histories, see this page.  

Today is Kurt Steiner‘s birthday!

Kurt Steiner was interviewed by Marlene Mayo on May 19 and May 20, 1986.

Kurt Steiner (June 10, 1912 – October 20, 2003), attorney and professor of government and politics, received his JD at the University of Vienna, before emigrating to the United States in 1938 to escape Nazi rule. As as speaker of several languages, he obtained a job as an instructor at the Berlitz language school in Cleveland, Ohio and later became head of the schools in Cleveland and Pittsburgh. He was inducted into the Army in December 1943.

Trained in Japanese at the Army Japanese Intensive Language School in Ann Arbor, Michigan and at the Military Intelligence Language School at Fort Snelling in Minnesota, he was sent to Japan in December 1945. He initially worked for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). In January 1946, he was transferred to the International Prosecution Section (IPS) for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), where he became chief of documentary evidence during the years 1947-1949. Steiner later served as Chief of the Civil Affairs and Civil Liberties Branch of Legal Section, Legislation in Justice Division.

He remained in Japan until 1951. He earned a doctorate in political science from Stanford University in 1955 and, in that same year, joined the faculty. He remained at Stanford until his retirement in 1977. He was known for his works on local government in Japan and on the politics of Austria.

In this short excerpt from the interview, Steiner describes procedures within the courtroom of the IMTFE.

On this day in 1947… (May 27)

This post is part of a continuing series on the Censored Newspaper Articles (CNAs).

On May 27, 1947, Tokyo Shimbun submitted an article to the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD) with the headline, “琴” [Koto]. According to the censorship markings, this article was held for review, but eventually passed the inspection without changes. (Prange Call No. 47-loc-0242).

According to the article, Anehi Carkjan, an American woman who lectured at Tsuda English College, became friends with Tamaki Miura, a Japanese opera-singer, during her stay in Japan.  After the death of Miura, Carkjan was inspired to introduce Japanese traditional culture to an American audience. She learned to play the koto and intended to play for friends in the United States.

This article has been digitized. In addition to being available in digital form at the University of Maryland, it is also available onsite at the National Diet Library of Japan (NDL) through NDL’s Digital Collection.

On this day in 1947… (May 13)

This post is part of a continuing series on the Censored Newspaper Articles (CNAs).

On May 13, 1947, Mainichi Shimbun submitted a short article to the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD) with the headline, “ペリュー島に日本兵” [Japanese Soldiers in Perillew [sic] Island] (Prange Call No. 47-loc-0128). The article was held, but eventually passed the censorship review.

According to the article, there were still 34 Japanese soldiers on Peleliu Island fighting, because they did not believe in Japan’s defeat. The Rock Phosphate Import Association located on nearby Angaur Island and Americans dispatched from Guam were trying to persuade them to lay down their arms and surrender, but the soldiers had not responded to their pleas. The Association encouraged family members of the soldiers to send letters to them care of the Association, encouraging them to return home.

The article provides the names of 21 of the soldiers. The names of the remaining 13 soldiers were unknown.

This article has been digitized.  In addition to being available in digital form at the University of Maryland, it is also available onsite at the National Diet Library of Japan (NDL) through NDL’s Digital Collection.

Happy Children’s Day!

Happy Children’s Day [子どもの日 – Kodomo no hi]!

This page from the children’s magazine, “Yonen Ehon” [幼年えほん] (5/1/1949), features Koinobori [こいのぼり], carp-shaped flags that are flown on Children’s Day.

Featured Movie-related item: The Seventh Veil (1946)

It’s Oscar season again!  This year we bring you The Seventh Veil, which won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (1946) at the 19th Academy Awards on March 13, 1947.  In the film, a well known concert pianist attempts suicide and is hospitalized.  Her psychiatrist induces a sleep-like state to peel back the “veils” of her subconscious to reveal memories.  In flashbacks, the audience learns why she tried to take her own life. 

The film premiered in the U.S. with a limited release in New York City in December 1945, followed by a wider U.S. release on February 15, 1946.  The film opened in Japan on Christmas Day 1947.  

This version of The Seventh Veil (Call no. PN-0224) includes the screenplay in Japanese and in English, side-by-side on each page.  Select pages are below.  

Synopsis in Japanese/title, cast, & crew credits in English & Japanese

(p2-3)….Larsen lays out treatment for Francesca- mentions the seven veils analogy.

(p18-19) Francesca asks Peter to marry her/she tells Nicholas-he says they will go to Paris.

(p36-37) Nicholas demands she stay but she runs away with Max. She wakes up in hospital with bandaged hands.

(p38-39) Francesca can’t play anymore & wishes she was dead. Then, back to present day with Dr. Larsen.

(p40-41) Dr. Larsen starts more treatment, but Max tries to stop the treatment.

(p44-45) Nicholas convinces Francesca to continue treatment, then Dr. Larsen talks to Peter.

(p48-imprint) Larsen explains that Francesca is now a changed person.

Back cover