Minneapolis, MN, USA. June 12, 2018—Over 100 years of Japanese-American history is now available online through The Rafu Shimpo (羅府新報, the L.A. Japanese Daily News) digital archive, a new collection on East View’s Global Press Archive platform.

Founded in 1903 to support the small but growing Japanese community in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles, California, The Rafu Shimpo was published daily, with an English-language section added to the Sunday edition in 1926. By the 1940s the newspaper had grown to be the largest-circulation newspaper published in Japanese in the United States.

Once World War II started, Publisher H. Toyosaku Komai was arrested by the FBI on December 7, 1941 and the paper was forced to cease publication. In his absence, his eldest son Akira took charge of the newspaper until Akira and the majority of the Komai family were interned at the Manzanar camp near Granada, Colorado for the remainder of the war.

With Akira’s foresight to hide expensive printing equipment and ensure the rent was paid, the publisher quickly revived the business after the war, and capitalized on being the first Japanese-American newspaper to resume publication in January of 1946. The paper outlasted all its local competitors and grew to become the most important newspaper among Japanese-American communities throughout the United States.

“The Rafu Shimpo rests squarely at the scholarly intersection of Japanese history and the Japanese-American émigré community—especially in California, with its unique coverage of local news and obituaries,” said Kent D. Lee, President and CEO of East View Information Services. “This unique resource gives researchers first-hand accounts of day-to-day life from Japanese-Americans and their descendants from the early 1900s to today.”

Contact East View at [email protected] for a quote or a trial to The Rafu Shimpo digital archive, which features full-image e-content with searchable text.