Missingissues

The Missing Issues

Collecting complete, pristine, and historical back files of special audience newspapers, such as ethnic and minority community publications, almost always present challenges. The Hokubei Jiji has been especially difficult because much of the publisher’s run, along with the newspaper’s business records, were reportedly destroyed when the storage attic became infested with rodents. Another partial holding was stored in a Seattle warehouse but was ruined by water and mold. We have looked to libraries around the world for holdings but without much success so far, although it is believed that there may still be a run in a closed collection in Japan.

The University of Washington Libraries received bound issues from Washington State University in the mid-1970’s when WSU decided to discard almost all of its print newspaper collection. The UW microfilmed these 1938 and 1939 issues and then, presumably, discarded the paper issues. There are no records of issues having ever been received on subscription by the UW Libraries.

Here follows the inventory of missing issues of the Hokubei Jiji newspaper.

The Hokuebei Jiji began publication on September 1, 1902. It was closed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation in March 1942, after publishing what would become the last issue, on March 9, 1942.

MISSING FROM UW:

September 1, 1902 through December 8, 1917; April 1920-November 1937, January-March 1942

HELD AT OTHER INSTITUTIONS:

Stanford: November 28, 1906 through January 8, 1917 (incomplete); January 2-March 12, 1942.
Held at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Thank you for taking an interest in finding these missing issues. Contact Glenda Pearson at the University of Washington Libraries for more information. pearson@uw.edu