March 16, 2011
The daily Akahata on March 15 reached disaster-stricken areas for the first time in three days, encouraging readers who were affected by the major earthquake and tsunami.
However, many areas still remain without Akahata news due to delivery difficulties.
Damaged by the March 11 earthquake, an Akahata printing factory in the Tohoku region (covering Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Yamagata, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures) could not deliver the daily Akahata dated March 12 and 13 to each delivery center in the region.
Local Japanese Communist Party committees which escaped the disaster had received requests from many readers asking for Akahata news. They were saying, “I desperately want to read Akahata reports,” and “Please, get it somehow to us. We don’t care if it is one day late.”
So, an Akahata-printing company on March 14 decided to deliver the daily Akahata printed in Tokyo to Tohoku’s six prefectures by way of Aomori and Akita airports. Thanks to the efforts made by shipping staff and drivers, the paper successfully arrived in the six prefectures.
It was about 7 p.m. of the same day when the Morioka District Committee of the JCP in Iwate Prefecture received the issue of Akahata dated March 14.
District Committee members working together with the person in charge of Akahata delivery soon broke into teams to hand over the Akahata to each individual delivery person. Sakuma Masayuki, the District Committee chair, said, “Many JCP members here also either lost loved ones or cannot contact them. They are worrying about the safety of family members, relatives, or friends, but are taking part in Akahata delivery.”
However, the situation made it very difficult for them to deliver Akahata. They could not secure enough gasoline because many gas stations in their districts were closed due to shortage of gasoline. Yet, some were open but they had to wait in lines with more than 100 other cars.
Sato Toshiki, the leader of the JCP’s Yanagisawa branch in the district, at last received a bundle of Akahata three days after the quake. Saying, “Here goes!” at around 3 a.m. the next morning, he began delivering the day-old paper. He said, “Akahata is the only newspaper that can give us the strength, though facing great difficulties, based on its objective analysis.”
Sasaki Seishichi, an Akahata reader living in a village in the district, finally got the one-day-old Akahata. With the paper in his hand, he smiled and said, “I couldn’t wait to read this.”
However, many areas still remain without Akahata news due to delivery difficulties.
Damaged by the March 11 earthquake, an Akahata printing factory in the Tohoku region (covering Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Yamagata, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures) could not deliver the daily Akahata dated March 12 and 13 to each delivery center in the region.
Local Japanese Communist Party committees which escaped the disaster had received requests from many readers asking for Akahata news. They were saying, “I desperately want to read Akahata reports,” and “Please, get it somehow to us. We don’t care if it is one day late.”
So, an Akahata-printing company on March 14 decided to deliver the daily Akahata printed in Tokyo to Tohoku’s six prefectures by way of Aomori and Akita airports. Thanks to the efforts made by shipping staff and drivers, the paper successfully arrived in the six prefectures.
It was about 7 p.m. of the same day when the Morioka District Committee of the JCP in Iwate Prefecture received the issue of Akahata dated March 14.
District Committee members working together with the person in charge of Akahata delivery soon broke into teams to hand over the Akahata to each individual delivery person. Sakuma Masayuki, the District Committee chair, said, “Many JCP members here also either lost loved ones or cannot contact them. They are worrying about the safety of family members, relatives, or friends, but are taking part in Akahata delivery.”
However, the situation made it very difficult for them to deliver Akahata. They could not secure enough gasoline because many gas stations in their districts were closed due to shortage of gasoline. Yet, some were open but they had to wait in lines with more than 100 other cars.
Sato Toshiki, the leader of the JCP’s Yanagisawa branch in the district, at last received a bundle of Akahata three days after the quake. Saying, “Here goes!” at around 3 a.m. the next morning, he began delivering the day-old paper. He said, “Akahata is the only newspaper that can give us the strength, though facing great difficulties, based on its objective analysis.”
Sasaki Seishichi, an Akahata reader living in a village in the district, finally got the one-day-old Akahata. With the paper in his hand, he smiled and said, “I couldn’t wait to read this.”
