Newspapers: “Stars and Stripes” Librarian Retires After 40 Years Among the Archives

From Stars & Stripes:

Stars and Stripes’ library in Tokyo preserves the stories and heroics of countless service members from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars alongside records of newsworthy events on American bases in the Far East over the past 75 years.

Muroi, 65, who retires Friday, has worked in the newspaper’s library for more than half of that timespan.

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In 1979, he started full time in the library, which had a chief and four Japanese employees. Two kept track of photographs and two were assigned to cut up 10 newspapers each day and sort the clippings into categories that could be researched for future stories.

Known today as the Toshi Cooper Library, it holds at least 250,000 clippings that are stored in envelopes and filed so they can be searched by subject, such as notable figures, military units and campaigns.

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Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Libraries, News