target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_f8f723ee-ec73-5117-abf0-a80eecf16809.png" alt=""/> PrefaceSomehow the half-century mark seems the time for people to get serious about recording histories of organizations special to them. It's when notice is taken of the dwindling number of those with direct knowledge of the early years and anecdotal memories of an institution. So it was with the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in December of 1996, a year after the Club's fiftieth anniversary and following a memorial evening when we honored four members who had died during that year. Our then president, Will Dawkins of the Financial Times, in response to my lament on the dwindling few and lack of a historical record, asked if I would put one together for the FCCJ while witnesses of its origins still survived. I agreed.
On reflection, however, the task seemed too much for any one person to complete within a reasonable time frame, especially since other responsibilities prevented giving full time to the project. So, on the assumption that competent journalists could objectively "report" the history of the Club based on the fundamentals-who, what, where, when, why, how-and flesh it out with insightful or humorous anecdotes, I devised a plan to assign a decade to each of five Club members selected on the basis of their experience and their knowledge of the Club. A guideline was prepared, which essentially asked each "decade editor" to research and write up his decade just as he would any news story, in order to avoid receiving five diverse essays on FCCJ history.
Day Inoshita, who at one time or another worked for almost all the major news agencies, was selected for the first decade, 1945-54, because of his familiarity with that period. Jack Russell, with his long experience at NBC and other news organizations, as well as being a past president of the FCCJ, was chosen for the second decade. For the third decade, past president Swadesh DeRoy was chosen for similar reasons, except that his background was with the Times of London, Visnews, and the Press Trust of India. Bob Neff with his Business Week background and knowledge of the Club fit the fourth decade neatly. Pat Killen, formerly of UPI and long-time editor of our house organ, No. 1 Shimbun, was chosen for the last decade and also as a member of the three-man History Committee. Nick Ingleton, an experienced editor and publisher as well as a long-time Club member, joined the committee as our third member and contributed to planning and to our efforts to find an appropriate publisher.
The plan, too, called for the liberal use of photos, with captions that would complement the text. These were drawn primarily from FCCJ archives and included many taken by members, a number of whom received Pulitzer Prizes for their work. Kay Tateishi, who had also worked with news agencies as well as Time-Life, assisted as photo editor. Fortunately, Kay's sharp memory helped us to identify many of the people in uncaptioned photos from earlier days. As the general editor, however, the undersigned takes full responsibility for the photo captions and for any errors therein.
As for the Introduction, we wanted this to be written by a recognized authority on Japan as well as someone knowledgeable about the Club. Frank Gibney, a Time correspondent during the Korean War and well-known author of several books on Japan as well as former FCCJ Board member, more than met these requirements and agreed to take on this responsibility.
An overview of each ten-year span was provided as an aid for those unfamiliar with Japanese history. FCCJ fact files were compiled for each year, and from 1958 yearly lists of speakers at professional events were included to show the range of Club interests and activities. In addition, an Afterword was included to broadly update events into 1998. Again, the general editor was responsible for these, as well as for much of the content in the decade summaries.
One serious problem encountered by the decade editors during research on the book was caused by missing files, many lost during the earlier years when the Club changed premises several times. Fading memories, too, not to speak of mortality among earlier members, made it impossible to recapture all the details and anecdotes that we would have liked, especially for the earlier years. Contributions of photos and other memorabilia solicited from members and former members were, of course, most helpful (those who kindly responded are noted under Acknowledgments). Perseverance by all concerned, however, has given us the material for a first-rate book.
It is a book that sheds much light on the origins and development of the FCCJ into the institution we know today, and at the same time one that reflects historical aspects of Japan and Asia as seen through the eyes of foreign correspondents over the past half century. For the thousands of speakers who provided grist for our journalistic mills over the years, as well as for the many talented people who enlivened our entertainment events, this book will serve as a record of their appearances at the Club. And for our members, both past and present, and their many, many guests-all witnesses at one time or another to episodes of our history-these pages will serve as reminders of times past. May it also serve as a reference, and perhaps even as an inspiration, for future generations, especially in 2045 when they look back from the vantage point of the FCCJ's centennial.
-Charles Pomeroy
General Editor
Charles Pomeroy, a Korean War veteran who flew missions out of Japan while serving with VP-6 and later served with the Naval Attaché in Rome, Italy, returned to Tokyo in 1957 to study as a civilian. He graduated from Sophia University in 1962, then freelanced as a translator/writer for several years. In the mid-1960s he became a correspondent covering Japan's healthcare industry, which he continues to do today as bureau chief for Marketletter (Publications).
Kay K. Tateishi, the photo editor, grew up in Los Angeles and later traveled to Japan on a Japanese government scholarship. There he studied at the Japanese Foreign Office's Heishikan. One week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he joined the Domei News Agency. During his tenure there, he spent a year in Manila. Later he worked for the Asahi Shimbun and Time-Life.
Half a century, they tell me, is a considerable length of time. In fact, it was fiftytwo years ago when I paid my first visit to the Tokyo Correspondents Club as a twenty-one-year-old Navy lieutenant. My excuse was that I had just been named public information officer for Commander Naval Activities Japan as collateral duty-I was already the admiral's flag lieutenant and aide. The Club had just been set up in one of the old Mitsubishi buildings, dingy but unbombed-off what later became known as Shimbun Alley-and it had already acquired a reputation for reasonably good food, an ample supply of drink, and intermittently raucous behavior. As the Navy's official spokesman in Occupation Japan, I thought it only fitting that I visit the locale to which my press releases were directed and, if possible, meet some of the recipients.
For me the camaraderie of Shimbun Alley offered considerable added value: a welcome release from the "by-the-numbers" Occupation society in which I worked and lived. Here at the bar were the people behind the names I had been reading in the war reporting. By and large, they were friendly and approachable. Most had shared some of my own war experiences. (Some even offered to buy the drinks while discussing them.) Furthermore, theirs seemed like an interesting profession. Why go back to start at a dreary law school when I could, maybe, get a job reporting Japan, learn more while I earned, and, ultimately, exchange stories with the cognoscenti at the bar?
It took me a few years and a bit of pavement-pounding to make the round trip between Tokyo, New York, and back-by way of Time magazine's editorial offices in New York and near drowning in a total immersion course at foreign correspondenting in the London and Paris bureaus. Happily, Shimbun Alley was still in place. Jimmy was serving the drinks, Mary "manned" the world's most efficient telephone exchange, and many of the same denizens gathered around the somewhat refurbished bar. There had been some changes, it is true. The abrupt dismissal of "Father"
