What happened to the university in 1969 -EIZY’s Long History-

　　　　　　

  

What happened to the university in 1969　　 -EIZY’s Long History-

Rina Suzuki, Wakana Sunada 

  Congratulations to all new students. We are really happy to welcome students who are to start new lives at Aoyama Gakuin University. We are the English newspaper community, called “EIZY”.   This name is derived from the Japanese sound of “EIZI SHINBUN” which means English newspaper in Japanese.  In this club, members decide on topics in which they are interested and write newspapers in English. ”Eizy” started the activities in 1984, but in fact, our club is not the first English newspaper community in this university. “ Aoyama TROJAN” was the first English newspaper community, which was established in 1950, but Trojan was suspended in1969. Therefore, Eizy was established as a new English newspaper community. No one knows the reason why Trojan was suspended at the time, so it has been a mystery for many years. However, we accidentally found the old newspapers in our clubroom and then found out that the student movement in 1969 was involved in the suspension of Trojan. The following is an excerpt from the old newspaper article written by the chief editor about Trojan’s suspension.  

 “It is a matter of regret that the 18-year history of the Aoyama TROJAN must be suspended for the first time being. The Aoyama Gakuin central administration which has subsidized our club since its foundation will discontinue our subsidy from the coming school year.” 

As for the reasons for suspension of subsidy: 

1.     The central administration office has been obliged to cut costs due to the decision not to raise the tuition fees, as well as because of the soaring costs of school operation. 

2.     As Aoyama Gakuin has discontinued active fund-raising abroad, the Trojan’s original purpose has been diluted. 

3.     In the past few years, the Trojan has not been neutral nor played a proper journalistic role. Moreover, assistant professors to the Trojan found that their advice was increasingly rejected by the student editors and therefore they could no longer be responsible as advisors.    

※One of the Trojan’s active purposes:　to make known the activities of Aoyama Gakuin abroad, to missionaries and to alumni so as relate them closely with the school.  

According to the old newspaper, the reason for the suspension of Trojan was financial problems, but as mentioned in 3, the fact that Trojan’s newspaper was no longer able to fulfill its journalistic role is the biggest cause of the three. The year 1969 was a time when the student movement went on back. The student movement is an activity led by students. While there have been a variety of activities, the most representative examples are the anti-war movement and the movement against tuition hikes. The student movement in Japan was at its peak during the campaign against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty of 1960 and the Zengaku Kyoto movement of 1968-1970. From 1968-1969, some members of Trojan were participating in the student movement and the content of the newspaper had become more and more one-sided. The university authority considered such a situation dangerous, and decide to stop Trojan’s activity. After the Trojan was suspended, the rumors that the suspension of the Trojan equaled interference with the freedom of the press by the school authorities, spread in the university. However, the chief editor strongly denied this rumor and admitted the fact that their recent articles were one-sided.  From this research, it is obvious that the student movement had a profound impact on Trojan, but it is not only that this movement had an effect. What was school life like during the student movement?

 

To know more about it, we interviewed Mr. Okada, a graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University who was a member of the Trojan newspaper at the time. 

 

☆Mr. Okada’s memory and the university situation in 1969 

Although he did not experience any disruption of classes or other damage, he did see the signs of extreme words on-campus writing "Overthrow Imperialism" and white cloths with proclamations hanging from the windows. One event that left a particularly strong impression on him was the graduation ceremony held in March 1969 at the university. In this ceremony, the Judo club and other athletic students guarded the venue to prevent any interference from Zenkyoto. He also said that he was very shocked at the time that the Yasuda Auditorium of Tokyo university was occupied in January 1969, making it impossible to hold examinations for new students. While there were many articles related to the student movement in the Trojan newspapers of the 1960s, the newspaper published on January 22, 1969, especially reveals just how active the student movement was at the time. The following is an excerpt from the newspaper of the time, describing how the Building was occupied by students in Aoyama Gakuin, and also showing students dressed as Zenkyoto students.

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His springtime in TROJAN-

During the interview, Mr. Okada talked about his memories of TROJAN. He said the most enjoyable memory of TROJAN's newspaper production activities was going to the print office. It took two to three days to finish printing newspapers, and he stayed there the entire first day to observe the printing. He said it was interesting just to watch a large amount of newspapers being printed on the huge printing machine. In addition to this, he said that he also remembers taking advertisements as one of newspaper production activities. TROJAN had advertising sections from small to large sizes although not in the current newspaper (A.G. University News). Advertisements ranged from beauty salons to a major bank. In the cases of neighborhood stores, members of TROJAN went there to ask for advertisements. And in the cases of major companies, they were placed through seniors who worked at the companies after they graduated from TROJAN. Incidentally, the ad fee for a large size was ¥3,000. 

 

Over 150 helmeted, masked and armed with staves students composed of Aoyama Beheiren (Citizen’s Alliance for Peace In Vietnam) and Zenkyoto (All Campus Joint Struggle Council) members again occupied and barricaded No.8 Building about 11:00 p.m. on Dec.12. In an attempt to prevent this barricading, over 400 general students formed scrummages in the rain. 

-How to make newspaper in the old days-

We A.G.University News make newspapers using a computer. It is an essential item for making newspapers for us because it is useful for writing, gathering information, etc. However, computers were not common in the 1960s, at the time of TROJAN. How on earth did TROJAN make such a wonderful newspaper 50 years ago? The process is as follows.

1. Decide what to feature in the articles.

There were three categories of articles: AGU life, sports, and feature news.

2. Write the article using a typewriter.

TROJAN had typewriters in their club room, and students practiced typing even outside of activity days.

3. Have a foreign advisor correct the article after finishing writing.

4. Print newspapers.

TROJAN printed its newspaper at a major newspaper company’s printing office. They requested details about the format of the newspaper, for instance, which font to use for the title, where to put the photo, and so forth.

5. Sell the newspaper.

TROJAN sold its newspaper for 10 yen per copy. The important point is that 10 yen at that time is equivalent to 100 yen today. Perhaps because of this, newspapers were sold well to evening school students, many of whom were working adults with more financial resources than students.

Q & A 

During the interview, we asked Mr. Okada the little things that we want to know about his school life other than Trojan activity. 

Q1　Aoyama Gakuin University is known for its high level of English skills. Did you ever realize it while you attended AGU? 

A　There seemed to be more foreign teachers than other universities, considering it was 50 years ago. 

Q2　Where did you often go out with friends? 

A　I often went to coffee shops in Shibuya. There were many coffee shops in Shibuya at that time. 

Q3　What kind of menu was available in the student cafeteria? 

A　I don't remember many, but I do remember there was curry and ramen. They were 50 yen. 

Q4　Were there any impressive or interesting university classes? 

A　Yes. There were liberal arts subjects at that time such as ethics, psychology, and history, and I remember psychology class was interesting. 

*Liberal arts subject is the current Aoyama Standard 

Mr. Okada’s profile

Mr. Okada entered the Faculty of Economics at Aoyama Gakuin University in 1965 and graduated from the university in 1969. He joined TROJAN  and wrote articles as a reporter. When he was in the third grade, he became Feature News Editor and was one of the leaders of the club. Although he had been away from Aoyama Gakuin after graduation, he began working at Ivy Hall in 2009 at the invitation of an acquaintance and became involved with Aoyama Gakuin again.