Translation, Technology, and the Digital Archive: Preserving a Historic Japanese-language Newspaper

Abstract

The Nikkei Newspaper Digital Archive Project (NNDAP) began in July 2011. A joint project of the Hokubei Hochi Foundation and University of Washington Libraries, the NNDAP pursues a mission of interest and importance to journalism historians: the creation of a public digital archive for a Seattle-based, Japanese-language newspaper that published almost continuously across the twentieth century, from 1902 to the present moment, with a forced interruption during the World War II period of Japanese-American internment. The North American Post or Hokubei Hochi—the two titles used for the newspaper after World War II (it was previously titled Hokubei JiJi)—is a rich resource for scholars, especially those interested in the history of the American West, the Japanese-American experience, Seattle, and, of course, ethnic newspapers in the US.