ROCKY MOUNTAIN JIHO NEWSPAPERS
The Japanese American Resource Center of Colorado (JARCC), along with the original donor Mrs. Hiroko Tsubokawa Hansen, are very excited to announce that numerous original copies of the Rocky Mountain JIHO were recently donated to the permanent collection of History Colorado.
When it became apparent that JARCC would not be capable of storing and digitizing the newspapers for future access and after consultation with Mrs. Hansen, the JARCC Board voted to donate all copies to History Colorado where they will be stored appropriately. All donated issues will be recorded via microfilm and are available to view at the Stephan H. Hart Research Center at History Colorado.
The donated JIHO copies cover a span from 1959, when the paper was first created, to its first issue in 1962. The Rocky Mountain JIHO was owned and operated through 1979 by Mr. and Mrs. Toshio Tsubokawa and reached hundreds of subscribers in Colorado, Nebraska and New Mexico. The entire family was involved in the weekly publication from Sadako Tsubokawa, Hiroko’s mother, who handled the advertisements of local businesses to Hiroko and sister Matoko, who helped their father with the weekly printing and distribution by traveling to different states to deliver copies to subscribers. Fumie Ogawa, one of the original typists, was responsible for the written articles typed in Japanese characters which was then transferred to Roy and Sumi Takeno, who were responsible for the English translation of the articles. Denver resident, Kimiko Side, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, was also one of the first typists contributing to the JIHO publications.
