『ユタ日報』創設者・寺澤畊夫のライフヒストリー的研究序論

Abstract

「ユタ日報』は1914年に米国ユタ州ソルトレークシティで寺澤畊夫(てらさわ・うねお)によって創刊された日本語新聞である。この小論では、同新聞社に残された資料をもとに寺澤畊夫のライフヒストリー的研究を試みることにより示唆される社会学的意味を探ることを目的とする。具体的には寺澤畊夫の米国到着からユタ日報創設までの期間に限定して、彼の足跡を辿ったが、日本人コミュニティの基盤となる日本人会、仏教会および日本語新聞の創設の功績が大であった一方、故郷に帰って政治家になる夢の実現のためベンチャービジネスへの意欲も高かった事実が浮かび上がった。

This is an exploratory study of Uneo Terasawa, founder of the Utah Nippo, a Japanese newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah, from 1914 to 1991. The purpose of this study is to examine how the life history approach contributes to sociological interpretations about a Japanese pioneer who emigrated from Japan to work in California, and then moved to Utah where he eventually settled. The scope is limited to the period from his immigration to the United States in 1905 to the time he established the Utah Nippo in 1914. Because Uneo died in 1939, the oral history method, the traditional data collection procedure in life histories, was not able to be used for this study. However, the materials and documents remaining at the newspaper building, such as photographs, letters, notebooks, were available to enable the researcher to reconstruct his history. Interviews of his family in the United States and relatives in Japan were also conducted to collect further information. One of the major findings were documents that gave an insight into how he spent the early days of his immigration. His footprints were traced by the letters preserved at the newspaper building. A business card and a notebook showed that he was a labor contractor in Fresno, California in 1908-09, before he moved to Utah. Postcards indicated that he was politically active and became instantly involved in the Japanese community in Salt Lake City and Utah. He worked with the Japanese Association of Utah and the existing Japanese newspaper which had been established in 1907. It has been indicated that his goal was to go back to Japan to become a politician, and that he started the Japanese newspaper as a means to attain that goal. There is evidence that he was also a vice president of a mining company and had interest in other investment ventures. As an active member of the community, he must receive full recognition as one of the major builders of crucial social institutions for the early Japanese community, such as The Utah Nippo newspaper, the Buddhist church, and the Japanese Association of Utah. He made use of the newspaper, the only mass medium at that time, to develop his influence in the Intermountain area including Idaho, Wyoming and eastern Nevada.