Who Reads Shashi? The Case of the Hiroshima Regional Newspaper

Authors

  • Ann Sherif Oberlin College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/shashi.2012.4

Abstract

The company history of a newspaper company raises new questions about the genre of company histories. Who reads them? What features should readers and researchers be aware of when using them as a source? This article examines the shashi of the Chûgoku Shinbun, the Hiroshima regional newspaper. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 were significant because of their perceived role in bringing World War II to an end and in signaling the start of the nuclear age. Most research to date has emphasized the role of national newspapers and the international media in informing the public about the extent of the damage and generating a framework within which to understand. I compare the representation of three key events in the Chûgoku Shinbun company history (shashi) to those in two national newspapers (Asahi and Yomiuri), as well as the ways that the Hiroshima company’s 100th and 120th year self-presentations reveal important concerns of the region and the nation, and motivations in going public with its shashi. These comparisons will reveal some of the merits and limits of using shashi in research. This article is part of a larger study on the work of the influence of regional press and publishers on literature in twentieth-century Japan.


 

 

Author Biography

Ann Sherif, Oberlin College

Professor

East Asian Studies

Oberlin College

Oberlin, OH USA

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Published

2012-12-18

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2012): Shashi Issue 1

Section

Articles

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