The following is an excerpt from a New Year’s message to readers that appeared in the Jan. 1, 1939 edition of The Rafu Shimpo, as the Year of the Rabbit began. The piece is credited to “The Tozai.”
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The tick of the second hand, the turn of the clock, a flip of the calendar — and the New Year!
Behind us, into the limbo of the past, lies another year; 1938 is no more.
Before us are 365 days of 1939. And once again the significance of the early rays of a New Year’s sun stirs within every soul the brighter hopes of new life, new ambitions.
The English Section staff, having completed the year-end stint a week ago in the publication of the all-English Holiday Issue, found time in the closing hoursof the old year to pause and reflect on the threshold of the new year.
To each and every one of our readers we wish a truly “Happy New Year”!