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Japan journos deliver news in handwriting
Hiroyuki Takeuchi: The editorial chief of evening daily newspaper Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, Hiroyuki Takeuchi
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span class="inline inline-left">Hiroyuki Takeuchi: The editorial chief of evening daily newspaper Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, Hiroyuki Takeuchi. (JP/Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata)When the Japanese observe the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami next week, the six poster-sized handwritten papers framed and displayed in a modest gallery in downtown Ishinomaki will serve as reminders of the local journalists’ resilience to continue reporting their biggest story ever even when modern-day press and printing facilities were crippled.
It was also at a time when the local evening daily, the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, was only a year short of its centennial anniversary. The Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun had to resort to the old fashioned way of disseminating information: Writing it down on paper and placing posters in places where people gathered.
But in this case, those places were local evacuation centers where survivors from this small fishing town were sheltered after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent nine-meter high tsunami struck the city located on Japan’s northeastern coast on March 11, 2011.
The Hibi Shimbun’s editorial chief Hiroyuki Takeuchi said the paper’s two-story building did not collapse during the most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan’s history but they had no electricity to power their computers and printers.
The condition left them only with the basic reporting tools of pen and paper, which the journalists eventually used to deliver what could be their once-in-a-lifetime story and on the worst natural disaster the city had ever experienced.
Using black, blue and red felt-tip pens, Takeuchi and his staff journalists handwrote news reports they could gather about the twin disasters on large, white sheets of paper that were originally stocked for printing.
“We made six copies everyday for the following six days. We took the papers to relief centers and pinned them up for people to read,” Takeuchi told journalists participating in the 2012 Developing Asia Journalism Award Forum, who visited his office in November.
The first handwritten edition of Hibi Shimbun was published on March 12, 2011 with the basic staple of disaster news reporting, such as the number of corpses and the state of the massive destruction in the city.
Ishinomaki was one of the worst-hit in the Miyagi Prefecture. About 13 percent of its 555 square- kilometer city was inundated by the tsunami. Signs of devastation in the city, which lost 11,261 out of its 162,822 residents, are still evident today, especially on the plains along the coast line where smashed and broken cars were stacked in huge piles on barren land next to washed-away houses and destroyed buildings.
However, because Takeuchi was quick to realize that such “tragic and negative” information would only shatter the survivors’ already somber moods, they decided to change their editorial policy for their March 14 edition.
“We started to report on information that contained hopeful sentiments such as news about volunteers who worked in disaster areas,” he said, adding that they still reported on some of the damage, but with smaller coverage and positioned the news stories on the lower section of the paper.
“At that time, we were not just being journalists but we were also being locals,” Takeuchi said.
A similar editorial view was also shared by Kahoku Shimpo, a daily newspaper based in Sendai City, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture about a one hour drive by bus down the coast from Ishinomaki.
“We always kept in mind that our readers are from here and that the pictures [from the disasters] published should not negatively affect them,” Shinichi Takeda, the paper’s deputy editorial chief, said.
Although he had lost contact with some of his reporters around the region while they were out reporting on the tragedies, Takeda added they still had to report on what was really happening in the aftermath, such as the fact that not all people in the affected areas received equal help.
Takeda said that another challenge the media outlet faced following the disaster was trying to reduce the stress level of his staff in its aftermath. Some employees were able to bring their children to the office to be closer with their parents.
“In the middle of this confusion, I asked myself, what is the real purpose of a newspaper? I believe our mission is to record what happened,” Takeda said, adding that as a local newspaper, which has a circulation of 500,000 within the Tohoku region, their reports on the tragedy would also keep readers and officials on alert so they could prepare for the next disaster and possibly prevent a high number of casualties.
During the tragedy, the use of social media also came to the fore.
Takeda acknowledged the use of social media was “equally important” as a conventional means of communication during that period, especially to wider audiences outside the region.
“We learned the importance of using social media to get news out,” he said.
The important role of media in reporting the disaster was also acknowledged by the local prefectural administration.
Takamasa Chiba, the head of Miyagi Prefectural Government’s earthquake disaster restoration policy division said people were able to access information quickly through video sharing website YouTube and other online media outlets.
“When media outlets published what happened, it generated worldwide support,” he said.
Kahoku Shimpo’s Takeda admitted that there were “too many difficult problems” to report even as the region was returning to normal.
“But as a local newspaper, we have to keep reporting so that people outside the Tohoku region don’t forget about what happened,” Takeda said.
Meanwhile in Ishinomaki, the efforts of Hibi Shimbun’s journalists to still somehow publish their paper, albeit with limited capacity as they battled with their own personal hardships as survivors of the disaster, paid off when Ishinomaki residents expressed their appreciation for their work.
“The survivors said they were encouraged because it showed that some people were still actually working and got on with their lives despite the tragedy. It gave them some hope and encouragement,” Takeuchi of Hibi Shimbun said.
“Although limited, I believe we were able to give the survivors useful information,” he added.
