Hokubei Mainichi Newspaper Shutters Friday

It's shocking to hear the Nichi Bei Times disappeared not long ago, but it's even worse to hear that the second major Japanese American newspaper institution, the Hokubei Mainichi is going to end their news service with it's last edition tomorrow (Friday).

These newspapers are the lifeblood of the Bay Area Japanese American communities, especially San Francisco's Japantown. People rely on these newspapers for important information about events around their communities and important community issues.

This doesn't leave us with many media options out there. The Rafu Shimpo is the Buddhist Church's newspaper, and the Pacific Citizen is a newspaper operated by the Japanese American Citizens League with their primary news office in Southern California.

Sure, the Nichi Bei foundation is trying to get themselves going, but it lost a lot of its readership after the last edition of the Nichi Bei Times notified people that their current subscription is to abruptly end and they must pay to subscribe to the "foundation's" newspaper.

On a final note, I do miss the Nichi Bei Times and Hokubei Mainichi. Without their efforts to spread the word about the redress movement to get compensation and an apology from the federal government for sending Japanese Americans to internment camps, the effort would have been even more difficult. I appreciate their hard work to cover the news on projects I have helped lead that have made a difference to the Japantown community, including the "Save Japantown" movement and to fight back from mean criticism from the folks at 1600 Webster.

These newspapers are the lifeblood of Japantown, please don't go away forever.