Censored Newspaper Articles

The 18,047 newspaper titles in the Gordon W. Prange Collection constitute the largest collection anywhere (including Japan) of Japanese-language newspapers published during the immediate post-World War II period.  Within this collection are major dailies such as Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, and Yomiuri Shimbun, including their local editions. The Collection also includes less frequently issued newspapers such as Kumamoto Minyu Shimbun, Nihon Fujin Shimbun (Tokyo), Aoba Shimbun (Miyagi), Yakyujin (Tokyo), and Kanshiki Nyusu (Hyogo), as well as newsletters produced by political parties, labor unions, farming cooperatives, literary societies, educational organizations, and students.

The published versions of the Prange Collection newspapers were microfilmed in the 1990s.  The censored newspaper articles (CNAs) had yet to be organized and, therefore, were not microfilmed at that time. In March 2014, we began scanning the CNAs, with a projected completion date of January 2015. Access to the CNAs is restricted until the scanning is completed. Please contact prangebunko[at]umd.edu, for more information.

The CNAs are comprised of the following items:

• Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD) documents (English)
• News releases (primarily English & Japanese)
• Newspaper article galley proofs (primarily English & Japanese)
• Photographs (a small number)

The collection is organized into Foreign News and Local News and then chronologically. The vast majority of the articles are from the years 1947 and 1948, with a limited number of items from 1945, 1946, and 1949.

Below are examples of a CNAs with the following actions taken:  Pass, Delete, Suppress.

47-loc-0317

47-loc-0169

47-loc-0167

As the CNAs are scanned over the next several months, we will share with you additional samples from the collection.