Thanh Nghi newspaper (1941-1945): its birth, publications, and outstanding value for researching Vietnamese history

Abstract

Based on unpublished documents, many issues of Vietnamese history from 1940 to 1945, when France and Japan governed over Vietnam, could be researched in depth. Due to the linguistic and geographical challenges of using foreign languages, such as French and Japanese, the Vietnamese documents in all written forms, including Vietnamese newspapers, attest to their significant values. Along with Sciences Newspaper and Tri Tân, Thanh Nghi Newspaper was one of the three most widely legal-published newspapers in North Vietnam in this period. In its five-year existence, 120 published issues, and 1000 articles, Thanh Nghi had not only reflected Vietnam’s economic, political, and social affairs but it promoted national development by disseminating information and knowledge as well as struggling for social advancement. The documentary values of this weekly newspaper are identified not just in its research articles, essays, and investigative reports. Rather, the newspaper itself became a forum for Vietnamese intellectuals, composed of doctors, engineers, writers, presenting their opinions to contribute to advance the nation. Many journalists were the pioneers in building a people-owned regime. If effectively unearthing the Thanh Nghi material, it could provide tremendous value to research the Vietnamese history in the 1940 - 1945 period in various aspects, thus narrowing the research flaws in previous studies and bestowing a multi-dimensional viewpoint on this controversial historical period.