UBC Library owns the only known collection of the Japanese Canadian newspaper Tairiku Nippō (The Continental Daily News). Published in Vancouver from 1908 to 1941, the Nippō was one of the leading newspapers of the Japanese Canadian community and an important source of information for the Japanese immigrant community in British Columbia.
Preserving stories of daily life from the Japanese Canadian community
“The paper vividly records the daily life of Japanese-Canadians, the majority of whom were then residing in the province of British Columbia,” notes Tsuneharu Gonnami in a 2001 paper published in the Journal of East Asian Libraries. Gonnami served as Japanese Studies Librarian at Asian Library from 1969 to 2002.
While the Nippō includes articles on Japan that reflect the imperialist ideology that had a hold on the country at the time, it also reflects a piece of Japanese Canadian history. As Tomoko Kitayama Yen, UBC Asian Library’s current Japanese Studies Librarian, says: “Nevertheless, the significance of this collection as a primary source is unparalleled. It remains an essential resource for those studying Japanese Canadian experiences before the forced dispersal and dispossession during World War II, as well as for broader research in Asian Canadian history and migration studies.”
Digitizing the Nippō
Tairiku Nippō was digitized by UBC Library in 2012, as part of UBC’s tribute to the Japanese Canadian Students of 1942. In order to make a digitized version of the newspaper publicly accessible, the team at UBC Library needed to find the rights holder for the newspaper, seven decades after it ceased publication.
Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa was the Japanese Studies Librarian in 2012, during the digitization project, and recalls working with Sarah Romkey, who was an archivist at Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) to solve the mystery of who held the rights to the Nippō. Eshghi Furuzawa ultimately discovered an interview with author Susan Aihoshi, in which she spoke of her family ties to the Nippō.
“After reaching out to her, she put me in touch with her uncle Alfred Iwasaki who is a descendant of the Yamazaki family,” says Eshghi Furuzawa, now Head of Asian Library. “We were—and still are—incredibly grateful to the family for letting us digitize the newspaper, making it available for the whole community.”
A photograph taken outside Asian Library with (left to right): Bronwen Sprout, Tomoko Kitayama Yen, Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa, Dr. Norifumi Kawahara and Aleteia Greenwood.
International collaboration
After the digitization was complete, the library made the digitized content available online. Much work has also been done to make the online version of the newspaper searchable, making it more accessible for researchers. While the library’s Digitization Centre team worked with student employees to create metadata during the first phase of the project, for the second phase of the project, Eshghi Furuzawa reached out to Dr. Norifumi Kawahara, Professor of Human Geography at the College of Letters at Japan’s Ritsumeikan University, who uses the Nippō for his research.
“Dr. Kawahara offered to support the project by going through the remaining articles with his research team, and providing the metadata to complete this project. The group accomplished this in Japan at no cost to UBC,” says Eshghi Furuzawa.
Making primary sources more accessible
Since its launch on UBC Open Collections, the digitized Tairiku Nippō has been viewed more than 2.5 million times by scholars from around the world, and downloaded more than 49,000 times.
“This newspaper collection is a testament to the resilience of the Japanese Canadian community and the collaborative spirit and the dedication of our partner, Professor Kawahara, and UBC Library and many others who have been involved in the project over the years,” says Kitayama Yen.
A photograph of Dr. Kawahara viewing a framed print of Tairiku Nippō.
幻の新渡戸庭園―『大陸日報』の分析から― (The Phantom Nitobe Garden: An Analysis of Tairiku Nippō)
Join us at the Asian Centre on Tuesday, February 25 for a public lecture by Dr. Kawahara, titled 幻の新渡戸庭園―『大陸日報』の分析から― (The Phantom Nitobe Garden: An Analysis of Tairiku Nippō). The lecture and discussion will be conducted in Japanese, with no live translation provided. However, a video recording with English subtitles will be made available at a later date.
Date and time: Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Language: 日本語 (Japanese)
Location: Asian Centre Room 604 (1871 West Mall, Vancouver)