Obituary

With deep regret I would like to inform FCCJ members that Atsuko Kobayashi DeRoy, a FCCJ Life member and a current Swadesh DeRoy Scholarship Committee member, passed away recently at home in Gunma Prefecture.

Atsuko DeRoy has joined her husband, Swadesh, a former president of the FCCJ and principal advocate of our scholarship program who died in 2001.

She passed away, alone, at her home in Yabuzuka-cho, Oota-shi, Gunma Prefecture, apparently on November 8th, although her body was not discovered until the 16th. Her failure to appear for classes at Waseda University, where she taught Japanese to foreign students, prompted the school to contact local police and to send an administrator to investigate, whereupon her body was discovered.

Atsuko was a pillar of support for the Scholarship Committee as well as other Club activities, including exemplary events for the Women's Activities Committee. She was 69.

The Funeral will be a private service for family members only.

Georges Baumgartner
FCCJ President

Date: Friday November 25, 2011
Time: 18:30 pm.-20:30 pm. (starting with buffet dinner)
Venue: FCCJ Media Room

The Associate Members Liaison Committee is holding a General Meeting of Associate Members where updates on important matters related to the current situation of the Club and its future will be provided, and ways Associate members can contribute will be discussed.

The President and other members of the Board will speak and be available to answer questions. All Club members, including Associate Members, Regular Members and Professional/Journalist Associate are welcome to attend. The primary purpose is to get to know each other, promote awareness on club matters and discuss how each of us can get involved.

There will be a buffet provided by the club (drinks will be available at subsidized prices). Please sign up at the front desk (03-3211-3161) in advance to let us know if you can attend.

Joan Anderson
Cochair, Associate Members' Liaison Committee

Obituary

With deep regret I would like to inform FCCJ members that Albert E. Kaff, of Fairfield, Connecticut, USA, retired foreign correspondent and vice-president of UPI, and also a former active member and President of FCCJ, passed away on October 25, 2011, at St. Vincent's Medical Center, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. He is survived by his wife Diana, two sons and four grandchildren. Albert Kaff was active in the FCCJ in the 1960's and early 1970's. He was 91.

Georges Baumgartner
FCCJ President

Al Kaff was probably the most unassuming, low-key, amiable president that the FCCJ has had in the years since 1963 during which I have been a member of the club. Although he lost his first bid for the presidency, Al showed no sign of resentment and agreed to serve on the Membership Committee under Mrs. Lee Martin of U.S. News and World Report (the wife of Robert (Pepper) Martin. I also was appointed as a committee member and got to know Al well as we served together on that committee. It was my first post in the club's administrative structure.

The following year, Al ran for president a second time and won handily. I had the pleasure of serving him as secretary, my first elective post in the club.

At UP (later UPI), Al even managed to get along smoothly with his bureau chief, Ernie Hoberecht, one of the most self-centered, self-promoting journalists I ever met. Once, during a visit to Taiwan, I picked up a Taipei English language morning newspaper in which a large story with the headline, "America's leading author to arrive in Taipei," splashed across the front page.

Hoberecht apparently felt qualified to call himself an author by writing potboilers like "Kill Me in Shinbashi" in occupation era Japan.

I got so irritated at constantly seeing that obviously that doctored photo of Hoberecht that just a month ago, I wrote to Al, asking about that photograph. His answer was the last that both the club and I received from him.

It read:
"The cover of Ernie's book 'Asia Is My Beat' is illustrated with a photo of General MacArthur reading from a statement while Ernie copies it on a typewriter. Conveniently air brushed out of the photo were two other men standing next to MacArthur and listening to him: Russell Brine of AP and the general's aide-de-camp. In a touch that Ernie hoped would sell the book, he listed on pages 107-108 in alphabetical order the names of 54 UPI correspondent he worked with in Korea during the war, if only for a day."

It was typical of Al that he relayed the truth about that photo which has hung in our lobby for more than half a century only in his last days -- and even then only when requested to do so.

---Sam Jameson, former FCCJ President 1973-1974

3:00 to 3:45pm (in English) and 4:00 to 4:45pm (in Japanese)
Monday, October 31, 2011

The FCCJ has begun offering members a substantial discount on subscriptions to LexisNexis' news database service, Nexis.com, and already a number of members have signed up for the comprehensive news and information database.

Nexis provides access to news and information from more than 34,000 sources, including Kyodo News, Jiji, Yonhap, Xinhua, AP, Reuters, AFP, all major world newspapers and specialist news sources. Also included is a database of U.S. and international company information, biographical databases, country profiles and a U.S. legal database.

The members-only deal allows for flat-rate access at 7,900 yen per month - offering big savings on a service that normally costs 126,000 yen per month.

To assist new users to the database and for those with an interest in learning more before subscribing, LexisNexis staff will hold training sessions at the Club on Monday, October 31. There will be two sessions so that members can learn both in English and Japanese. The first training session starts at 3pm and will be held in English. The second will start at 4pm and will be in Japanese. To help the staff with preparations, please call reception (3211-3161) in advance and let them know if you are planning to attend.

FCCJ Management

3:00 to 3:45pm (in English) and 4:00 to 4:45pm (in Japanese)
Monday, October 31, 2011

The FCCJ has begun offering members a substantial discount on subscriptions to LexisNexis' news database service, Nexis.com, and already a number of members have signed up for the comprehensive news and information database.

Nexis provides access to news and information from more than 34,000 sources, including Kyodo News, Jiji, Yonhap, Xinhua, AP, Reuters, AFP, all major world newspapers and specialist news sources. Also included is a database of U.S. and international company information, biographical databases, country profiles and a U.S. legal database.

The members-only deal allows for flat-rate access at 7,900 yen per month - offering big savings on a service that normally costs 126,000 yen per month.

To assist new users to the database and for those with an interest in learning more before subscribing, LexisNexis staff will hold training sessions at the Club on Monday, October 31. There will be two sessions so that members can learn both in English and Japanese. The first training session starts at 3pm and will be held in English. The second will start at 4pm and will be in Japanese. To help the staff with preparations, please call reception (3211-3161) in advance and let them know if you are planning to attend.

FCCJ Management

With deep regret I would like to inform FCCJ members that Robert M. Immerman, an active former FCCJ member, passed away on July 22 while on a family visit in California. He was 79.

Georges Baumgartner
FCCJ President

Robert M. Immerman served at the US Embassy in Tokyo for three terms since the 1960s, later becoming a member of the US delegation to the United Nations, and then a visiting scholar in Japanese studies and administration at Columbia University, Weatherhead Institute for East Asian Studies, in New York.

Bob had many friends from many nationalities during his long residence in Japan, especially among our professional membership. His whimsical and jovial nature was matched by a deep knowledge of Japan and the Japanese language. He was unique, an uncanny unbureaucrat. He will be missed by all who were lucky enough to have known him.

A memorial service in his honor will be held at the International House of Japan in Tokyo on October 20th from 6 to 8 PM. All are welcome to say another sayonara.

Roy Lockheimer

Ladies & Gentlemen

Through a friend I was able to read what you wrote about Bob, with whom I went birdwatching in Tokyo, in Central Park and in the Netherlands. That has such a good Japanese linguist that he was able to communicate fluently with local bird specialists we met in Meiji Park is an aspect which could have been mentioned in your look back at him. I think that Bob also participated in an FCCJ expedition to Shikinejima in the 1980ies. Ask Mr. Urban Lehner who organized that.

Burchard J. Pennink (joined the FCCJ in 1982) - October 1, 2011.

from http://robertimmerman.com/

7 p.m., Thursday, August 25, 2011

Join us to give a warm send-off to Martyn Williams, our former president and multimedia editor and longtime Tokyo bureau chief of IDG News Service, who will soon be California-bound to start a new chapter in his life.

He is one of 20 journalists who have been awarded the prestigious Knight Fellowship at Stanford University for the 2011-12 academic year. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the program aims to foster journalistic innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. Martyn's project is ambitious and important. He will spend the year designing tools to safely connect reporters with citizens in North Korea and other closed societies.

Martyn landed in Japan in 1995 from England and has been covering technology here ever since. Back then, he was writing about the Internet before most people had even heard of it. He witnessed Japan shift from analog to digital, and has seen his own job change through technology. He is now a true all-platform journalist -- he writes, tweets, blogs, photographs, shoots and edits video, and produces radio packages.

During his time at the FCCJ, Martyn has been an active, dedicated member who has given countless hours of his time. He served as president in 2007-08 and is proud to have led the effort to eliminate smoking at the club. He also served as chair of PAC, ITPC and the Scholarship Committee. He has regularly contributed articles to the No.1 Shimbun and informally helped many members solve their PC problems.

Stop by on August 25 to say thanks and wish him well.
The party starts at 7 p.m. There will be a free buffet and drinks at reduced prices. Members planning to attend should inform the reception desk (3211-3161) so that the staff can make appropriate preparations.

Georges Baumgartner
FCCJ President