火論：紙とペンがあれば＝玉木研二

毎日新聞、玉木さんの記事はイモーショナルに過ぎるきらいはありますが、感動しました。
記者の魂にあふれる記事の掲載を期待します。
（スラチャイ）

(Mainichi Japan) October 19, 2011
Spirit of journalism shines through in times of devastation
火論：紙とペンがあれば＝玉木研二
　＜ｋａ－ｒｏｎ＞

At a round-table talk held last month at the Mainichi's Sendai bureau by a panel of third-party experts comprising the Open Newspaper Committee, Koichi Omi, the president of the publisher of the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, explained what motivated the paper's staff to continue providing news with pen and poster paper in the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
　１６日の本紙朝刊に掲載された新聞週間特集「開かれた新聞」委員会の座談会。大震災で発行手段を失いながら手書きの「壁新聞」で報道を続け、世界的に称揚された石巻日日（ひび）新聞の近江弘一社長がこう語っている。

"Our papers are on display at an American museum and we've been awarded a prize by the International Press Institute, but what we did is not a heartwarming story at all," said Omi, of the "newspapers" that the disaster-stricken Miyagi-based paper continued to post on walls in evacuation centers and other public spaces.
　「米国の博物館に展示され国際的な賞も受賞したが、美談でも何でもない。

"We simply wanted to keep delivering information to people.
何としても情報を届けようという気持ち。

We felt there would be no point for us to continue living if we didn't fulfill our duty."
職務をまっとうしないと自分たちは生きる意味はないと考えていた」

Anyone involved in the newspaper industry is bound to find these words moving.
　同じ新聞界にあれば、この言葉に熱くならない人はいないだろう。

When the company lost the usual tools for issuing and delivering its papers, they remembered that they still had pen and paper.
発行のすべを奪われた時、まだそこにペンと紙があった。

In "Rokumai no Kabe Shimbun" (Six wall newspapers), a newly-published book recording the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun's efforts in the seven days following the quake and tsunami, Omi says that he had been reminded of the "kabe shimbun" (literally meaning "wall newspapers") he wrote and received praise for in elementary school.
　近江さんは角川ＳＳＣ新書「６枚の壁新聞」の中で、小学校の時に作って褒められた壁新聞がふと頭に浮かんだと記している。

Speaking of handwritten newspapers, there's another one that has left an indelible impression on me.
　手書き新聞といえば、私は思い起こす一枚がある。

It was July 1982, when heavy rains and flooding in Nagasaki led to 299 people dead or missing in one night.
　３０年近く前になる。１９８２年７月、一夜にして死者・行方不明者２９９人を出した長崎大水害。

The hardest-hit areas became physically isolated, making regular newspaper distribution virtually impossible. 地域は孤立して新聞輸送が困難になった。

The Nagasaki bureau chief of the Mainichi was determined to continue delivering information to those areas where it was still possible, however, and prepared copies of a one-page handwritten "newspaper" with headlines that read: "Nagasaki suffers great damage from heavy rains," and "116 dead or missing, while 95 buried alive," using a felt-tip pen to fill the page with information that the staff could obtain by the pre-dawn hours.
毎日新聞長崎支局長は、配れる範囲内でも情報を伝えたいと、手書き新聞を用意した。Ｂ４サイズの紙１枚である。
　「豪雨　長崎に大被害」「死者・不明１１６　生き埋め９５」と大きな見出しをつけ、明け方までに判明した限りの情報を整理し、フェルトペンで書き連ねた。

Ultimately, a Mainichi head office helicopter braved the poor weather conditions to deliver the regular morning edition of the newspaper, and the handwritten version never made it into the hands of readers.
　結局本社からのヘリが悪天候を突いて朝刊を届け、手書きの新聞は配布されることはなかった。

However, a copy of the handwritten extra edition is still posted on the wall of the bureau office, and the accompanying story is passed down even today to and by the staff posted to the bureau.
しかし、今もこの幻の号外は支局の壁に張られ、新人や初めて長崎に勤務する記者に伝えられている。

Following the floods, the local Nagasaki page of the Mainichi continued to provide readers with information on how they could secure food, clothing and shelter, supporting the public in their efforts to rebuild their lives.
　また、災害後、長崎の地域面は、衣食住確保などに関する細かな生活情報に徹し、被災者が日々の暮らしに必要とするものに応えた。

Compared to 30 years ago, we now have a wider range of means to disperse information, and the speed by which we can do so has risen immensely.
　当時に比べ、情報通信の手段や広がり、速度は革命的に激変した。

And yet, the sense of responsibility and passion that a handwritten newspaper represents still touches the hearts of its readers.
だが手書き新聞に象徴される使命感、つまり「熱さ」は、変わりなく読む者に訴えかけてくる。

This same can also be said of forms of media other than the handwritten newspaper.
もちろんそれはあらゆるメディアに共通していえることだろう。

Take, for example, what the Chugoku Shimbun did in August 1945.
　こんな例もある。

After the company headquarters were completely destroyed by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the paper set up a "word-of-mouth" team that went around the city yelling information through megaphones.
　４５年８月、原爆で広島市中心部の本社が壊滅した中国新聞は、新聞に代わる「口伝（くでん）隊」を編成し、メガホンで情報を伝えて回ったという。

Inspired by the paper's efforts, the late playwright Hisashi Inoue wrote the play "Shonen kudentai 1945" (Boys' word-of-mouth squad).
　これに想を得て故井上ひさしさんは朗読劇「少年口伝隊一九四五」を書いた。

The following is a line from the play, spoken in the Hiroshima dialect: "It's a bit pathetic when a newspaper publisher can't issue any newspapers, isn't it?"
　その中に広島弁でこんな言葉が出てくる。
　「新聞社が新聞をよう出せんいうんは、いかにも不細工な話ですけえ」

It may be a line that originated in a writer's imagination. But I can't help but feel that it epitomizes the inexhaustible spirit of the journalist.
　創作のせりふとしても、私はこれがあくなき報道人魂を言い表しているように思えてならない。（専門編集委員）

(By Kenji Tamaki, Expert Senior Writer)
毎日新聞　2011年10月18日　東京朝刊