More than 70 correspondents who have covered Japan from the 1940s to present day attended the Japan Correspondents Reunion on Thursday, March 18 at Club Quarters in Midtown Manhattan. Those gathered were treated to stories from speakers who relayed their experience in Japan, seeing old friends and eating sushi, soba noodles and roast beef sandwiches along with a full bar that poured (officially) until 9 p.m.
William J. Holstein, one of the event organizers, welcomed everyone to the event that commemorated 65 years of American media coverage of Japan. He said that there have been many talented journalists to have passed through Japan over the years.
“I hope we have been able to penetrate the heart of Japan,” he said. “When reporting, it’s always difficult to hit the right balance.”
He introduced the first speaker, Rutherford Poats. Poats said he was a lieutenant in the Army when he first went to Japan, in December 1945 and stayed on to be in charge of “everything” at United Press, where he worked. He saw the devastation of Japan from the windows of Army cars.
“It was a scene of utter destruction, insinerated homes, windowless buildings,” he said. “Yet when we settled down, we saw almost no hostility toward the Americans. Compare that with today’s concept of ‘foreign invaders,’ like American troops in Iraq. I was in charge of writing the ‘non-story’ of that time. There was nothing to write about in terms of tension. Instead, I covered the refomation of Japan’s economy.”
The second speaker, Rafael Steinberg, was posted in Tokyo for International News Service and later Time during the 1950s and ’60s. He spoke about what has changed between Japan and the United States since his time there, starting off with the nine or so flights required to get him near Japan. The fact that in the 1960s there was only one restaurant in New York that served sushi, but only on Wednesday afternoons. And words like “tatami” would require italics or quotes because many readers would be unfamiliar with the term. Now, direct flights are possible to Japan, nearly every block has a sushi restaurant and tatami no longer requires a separate definition or distinction.
He said in 1965, he wrote an article for East magazine with the headline “Why No One Pays Attention to Japan.”
“We could not get space in newspapers or magazines because Japanese leaders at the time in politics, sports and business were dull people,” he said. “To be a leader in Japan then, you have to be the lowest common denominator. In New York, they only wanted stories with interesting people.”
For writing about this, he said he was “persona non-grata” among his Japanese friends. He said he redeemed himself with a report to the Washinton Post that pointed out the U.S. military in Okinawa was suppressing the people. President Kennedy shifted the power structure as a result. “Many Japanese said, ‘you are a real friend of Japan,'” he said. They were also surprised that an American could be critical of the government and still render change. “We were newsmen first, Americans second,” he said.
Mike Tharp, executive editor of the Merced Sun-Star in Merced, California, took to the podium next to relay his experiences in Japan in the 1980s with The Wall Street Journal.
He read off a list of carousing nights in Tokyo and the rough housing that went on at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, the FCCJ bar and the elections of FCCJ during this period.
“While we were working our tails off, we also had fun,” he said. “This is during the time when Japan bashing hit its hey day. Our job was to keep the record striaght. We did what Carl Bernstein recommended for all journalists, ‘get the best attainable version of the truth.’ We were witnessing then — between the U.S. and Japanese relations — the same thing we’re witnessing now between the U.S. and China.”
Eamonn Fingleton, author of In the Jaws of the Dragon, came all the way from Tokyo for the reunion to speak about the present journalistic climate in Japan.
“There are almost no foreign correspondents left in Japan,” he said. “Nobody serious is there anymore and that’s reflected in how Japan has been covered.”
He said a recent IHT report claimed that Japan was “deflation plagued.” “But what do they mean by that?” he asked. “It’s the same thing that happened in the U.S. in the 1980s and 90s. It’s positive deflation. Yes the Japanese save, but not as much as the Chinese.”
He said one only need to look around Tokyo and see vibrant signs of consumption. He cited the fact that there are 11 Michelin three-star restaurants in Tokyo, in New York, only four.
Fingleton issued an invitation to debate, a call to arms for the reporters in the room. “Let’s have a real discussion about the importance of the West’s media coverage of Japan,” he said.
Ticket prices to the event were kept to $60 thanks to the generous support of ITOCHU International Inc.
A steering committee that pulled the reunion together included Toshio Aritake, representing the FCC in Tokyo, Al Kaff, United Press correspondent in Tokyo, 1952-1956, and United Press International, 1963-1972. Richard Pyle, Associated Press, Asia News Editor, Tokyo, 1979-1987, and life member of the FCCJ, Calvin Sims, The New York Times, Tokyo correspondent, 1999-2001. And chaired by Bill Holstein, the OPC Board Member and OPC Foundation President who covered Japan extensively during the 1990s. The OPC’s steering committee identified more than 200 former Japan hands all over the world.
The FCCJ wrote a message of congratulations for the reunion.