Newseum gets Japan quake handwritten newspapers

WASHINGTON – When Japan's earthquake and tsunami knocked out power and printing presses, newspaper journalists in at least one city resorted to handwriting the news on poster-size paper.

Seven of those original sheets from the daily Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun have now been acquired by the Newseum, the museum of journalism in Washington.

The museum plans to put them on display by May 2 in its World News Gallery.

The paper's journalists used flashlights and marker pens to write their stories, and they posted the newspapers at relief centers across the hard-hit city of Ishinomaki for six days beginning March 12. Six staff members collected stories, and three spent more than an hour each day handwriting the newspapers.

On the Newseum's website, curator Carrie Christoffersen says the poster papers show the journalists' commitment to informing their community.