The North American Post
Takami Page 11
[Editor’s Note]: All names are rendered in the English First, Middle, Last name order.
Reporter Atsushi Mugitani Reminisces
Former reporter of The North American Post (Hokubei Hōchi) Atsushi Mugitani, who opened a private English school in Tokyo’s Kōtō ward, shared with me his memories of the late Takami Hibiya. He graduated from Waseda University and enrolled in Washington State University in 1956, earned his Bachelor of Arts, and returned to Japan in 1960. He had originally aspired to be an author, and won the New Year Literary Award in the Los Angeles Japanese newspaper, The Rafu Shimpo.
While studying abroad in Seattle, he spent about two years working part-time as a reporter for The North American Post. During the day he worked under Mr. Hibiya, and at night he was a coat checker for a hotel.
“Tell me about your days as a poor reporter for a Japanese language newspaper…”
“I had already run out of money by the time I left Japan. It wasn’t possible to go to America in 1956 as an international student without someone there to rely on financially. Even if you had the money in yen, there weren’t enough dollars in Japan to have money sent over. Back then we international students took a test at The Bank of Japan.”
“At The Bank of Japan?”
“Yes, The Bank of Japan. I think it was a test concerning foreign currencies. My older sister Kazue married an American named Stephenson and was living in Tacoma, so I tried to get into a school in Seattle. Even so, I couldn’t ask her for the money to cover my tuition and living expenses, so I got by solely on the money I earned myself. Two-hundred dollars for my job as a reporter for The North American Post, and two-hundred checking coats at the hotel. Rooms at the hotel were free for employees, so I was able to live on four-hundred dollars. At the time, graduating from an American university with a degree in literature would get you five hundred a month, six or seven hundred for science and technology, and a thousand if you had a PhD.”
“Mr. Mugitani, wasn’t it difficult getting by on four-hundred dollars every month?”
“No, being single, the cost of living wasn’t bad. That is, in those days, because of the unprecedented prosperity in America, the average cost of living was low, and people were leading stable lives in a high-security society. So for that reason, as a single person I suppose I had a bit of flexibility on four-hundred dollars a month. For meals there was Ten Katsu and the Chinese restaurant across the street from The North American Post, so I wasn’t going hungry.
“And what do you remember about editor-in-chief Hibiya?”
“When I knew him his monthly salary was only about five-hundred dollars. I don’t think it was easy for him since he had a family. His wife was also working in the office of a Japanese-American fish wholesaler. Mr. Hibiya was hard on himself. He wasn’t the kind of guy with a knack for earning money.”
“So, he was unambitious…”
“Yes, he was unambitious. Fairly intelligent Japanese who went over to the U.S. didn’t save their money. They were able to live their lives without savings. You could say they didn’t need it. You could also say that having an academic background became an obstacle to earning money for Japanese immigrants.”
There was no need to define him by his poverty, but I want to stress that it wasn’t just Mr. Hibiya in Seattle. It was the same for Japanese newspapers in San Francisco and Los Angeles as well. Mr. Mugitani said, “Reporters were well respected by the average person. They had high social status.” I guess that’s because they were principled even in poverty.
♢
the Japanese newspaper—
its value reflected
in the obituaries
–Takao Iwamoto
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