My Life: Interview with TV Director Yasuko Isono, Part 8
Jun. 26, 2013
On-site Coverage for Radio Programs
by Takahiro Yamase, Staff Writer
Shining a light on social issues
Three years after joining the Yamaguchi Broadcasting Company, in Shunan City, as an announcer, Ms. Isono realized her wish of being transferred to the production division in 1962. Then she began to produce radio programs.
I still was eager to create documentary programs for TV, a dream I had held before joining the company, but there were no women working as TV directors at the time. Although television had opened up a whole new world of work, the roles given to men and women were not assigned equally. This world, too, became part of the old, male-dominated society.
Women in the industry, including me, received no recognition for our work unless we were proactive, earned accomplishments, and conveyed our determination to the men. For that reason, I first devoted myself to my work in radio, doing my utmost to show some achievement with my radio programs.
Radio reporting can be carried out by a woman alone. So I would race around at the places where events were occurring with a heavy recording device on my shoulder. At the Yamaguchi National Athletic Meet, held in 1963, I covered athletes and officials at the Ube City pool, the venue for the swimming events. At all the venues for the National Athletic Meet were press sections with rows of long tables. When I look at photos from that time, I was the only female reporter sitting in the press section. That’s the way it was back then.
Documentary programs for radio were produced by sharing information with such stations as the Yamaguchi Broadcasting Company and RCC Broadcasting Company, located in the city of Hiroshima. Both stations are found in cities on the Seto Inland Sea. For my first assignment, I chose the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, which had begun to move toward strengthening its military might. I addressed changes in the lives of the people in the Kawashimo district, located close to the base where fighter jets frequently flew, and the indifference of people in downtown Iwakuni. I titled the documentary “Bakuon” (“Detonation”). This was in 1963.
Around 1970, Ms. Isono produced the program “Hifukitake to Roba” (“The Old Woman and Her Bamboo Fire Stick”). This program looked at the problem of depopulation in mountainous areas. It won first prize in an annual contest for the radio programs by commercial broadcasters in the Chugoku and Shikoku regions.
As I was working on the program, I visited the home of an old woman who lived alone in the Nishiki-cho section of Iwakuni. It was New Year’s Eve and she was expecting her three sons, who lived in urban areas, to return home with her grandchildren. I waited with her, but no one appeared.
I made no conversation; I just continued to patiently hold the microphone toward her. The microphone was picking up the sound of her crackling fire, which she tended with a bamboo fire stick, as well as the babble of voices from the popular year-end show called “Kohaku Utagassen” (“Red and White Singing Contest”). Later, the sound of temple bells tolling the arrival of New Year’s was heard. Occasionally, the woman would murmur her feelings of solitude and sadness. Critics praised the program as a successful contrast between the growth in urban areas and the depopulation taking place in mountain communities.
Creating these radio programs enabled me to gain directing skills, which I used to shine a light on social issues by looking at the daily lives of ordinary people. To achieve this, it was vital to respect the dignity of the people I was covering and develop a trusting bond with them by conveying my sincerity. These days, I think the attitude on the part of some people in the media is a one-sided intrusion into the lives of those they cover.
(Originally published on December 10, 2010)
by Takahiro Yamase, Staff Writer
Shining a light on social issues
Three years after joining the Yamaguchi Broadcasting Company, in Shunan City, as an announcer, Ms. Isono realized her wish of being transferred to the production division in 1962. Then she began to produce radio programs.
I still was eager to create documentary programs for TV, a dream I had held before joining the company, but there were no women working as TV directors at the time. Although television had opened up a whole new world of work, the roles given to men and women were not assigned equally. This world, too, became part of the old, male-dominated society.
Women in the industry, including me, received no recognition for our work unless we were proactive, earned accomplishments, and conveyed our determination to the men. For that reason, I first devoted myself to my work in radio, doing my utmost to show some achievement with my radio programs.
Radio reporting can be carried out by a woman alone. So I would race around at the places where events were occurring with a heavy recording device on my shoulder. At the Yamaguchi National Athletic Meet, held in 1963, I covered athletes and officials at the Ube City pool, the venue for the swimming events. At all the venues for the National Athletic Meet were press sections with rows of long tables. When I look at photos from that time, I was the only female reporter sitting in the press section. That’s the way it was back then.
Documentary programs for radio were produced by sharing information with such stations as the Yamaguchi Broadcasting Company and RCC Broadcasting Company, located in the city of Hiroshima. Both stations are found in cities on the Seto Inland Sea. For my first assignment, I chose the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, which had begun to move toward strengthening its military might. I addressed changes in the lives of the people in the Kawashimo district, located close to the base where fighter jets frequently flew, and the indifference of people in downtown Iwakuni. I titled the documentary “Bakuon” (“Detonation”). This was in 1963.
Around 1970, Ms. Isono produced the program “Hifukitake to Roba” (“The Old Woman and Her Bamboo Fire Stick”). This program looked at the problem of depopulation in mountainous areas. It won first prize in an annual contest for the radio programs by commercial broadcasters in the Chugoku and Shikoku regions.
As I was working on the program, I visited the home of an old woman who lived alone in the Nishiki-cho section of Iwakuni. It was New Year’s Eve and she was expecting her three sons, who lived in urban areas, to return home with her grandchildren. I waited with her, but no one appeared.
I made no conversation; I just continued to patiently hold the microphone toward her. The microphone was picking up the sound of her crackling fire, which she tended with a bamboo fire stick, as well as the babble of voices from the popular year-end show called “Kohaku Utagassen” (“Red and White Singing Contest”). Later, the sound of temple bells tolling the arrival of New Year’s was heard. Occasionally, the woman would murmur her feelings of solitude and sadness. Critics praised the program as a successful contrast between the growth in urban areas and the depopulation taking place in mountain communities.
Creating these radio programs enabled me to gain directing skills, which I used to shine a light on social issues by looking at the daily lives of ordinary people. To achieve this, it was vital to respect the dignity of the people I was covering and develop a trusting bond with them by conveying my sincerity. These days, I think the attitude on the part of some people in the media is a one-sided intrusion into the lives of those they cover.
(Originally published on December 10, 2010)
