Newspaper StaffOne of the most permanent features in the camp was the camp newspaper. The newspaper first appeared as the Bulletin on October 14, 1942. "Two weeks later under a new name the first edition of the Granada Pioneer appeared and for almost the next three years both in English and Japanese, it served to keep the center population informed of any news which affected them" (Holsinger 1960: 58). The paper was originally founded by WRA reports officer Joe McClelland and Oski Taniwaki. It was delivered free of charge to every block.

The most popular feature in the biweekly paper was the cartoon 'Lil Neebo which appeared as a regular full-page feature. Chris Ishii was the cartoon's creator. He had first created the characters while in the Santa Anita Assembly Center. When he was later evacuated to Amache his cartoon followed. Before the evacuation he had been a cartoonist at Walt Disney. "When WRA officers learned of his artistic abilities, Ishii was subsequently released from Amache and ordered to go to New York City to help create posters for the military's drive to recruit more Japanese-American soldiers" (Lurie 1990: 67). Even after Ishii left Amache his cartoon remained.

Other newspapers printed at Amache included the Granada Christian Church News, Amache Facts, It, Junior Pioneer, Amache Tidings, Pulse, and School News.




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