.gif)
John Roderick (correspondent)
Encyclopedia
John Roderick was an American
journalist
and foreign correspondent
for the Associated Press
news service. Roderick was best known for covering Mao Zedong
and other Chinese
Communist guerillas while living with them in a cave
during the mid-1940s. Roderick continued to cover China throughout the rest of his career. He was considered to be a leading "China watcher," who covered the country from before the Chinese Communist victory of 1949 to the economic reforms
during the 1980s. He was once praised by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai
as the man who "opened the door" to China for foreign news media
.
Roderick's career as a correspondent
with the Associated Press spanned over fifty years, with postings in Asia
, Europe
and the Middle East
. Roderick reopened the Associated Press bureau
in Beijing
in 1979. He continued to work with the AP as a special correspondent for the two decades following his retirement in 1984.
, on September 14, 1914. He was orphaned when he was just 16 years old. His journalistic career began at the age of 15, when he began writing for a local newspaper, Waterville Morning Sentinel (now called The Central Maine Morning Sentinel
). He graduated from Colby College before joining the Associated Press office in Portland, Maine
, in 1937.
Roderick moved to the Associated Press' office in Washington D.C. in 1942. However, he was drafted into the United States Army
in 1943 during World War II
. He was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services
, which was a precursor of the CIA, and sent to the city of Kunming, China, which is the capital of Yunnan
province. Kunming was a strategically important city at the end of the Burma Road
with a large United States
military base
. He rejoined the Associated Press after the end of World War II.
government and the Chinese Communist forces
led by Mao Zedong
. The two sides had collaborated to fight the Japanese during World War II, but had turned on each other following the defeat of Japan
. Like many of the other American, British
and Australian war correspondents, Roderick was a military veteran of a war (World War II).
Roderick was 31 years old when he began living with leaders of the Chinese Communist rebel movement for seven months between 1945 and 1947. He resided with the rebel leadership, who included Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai
, Jiang Qing
and other guerilla leaders, at their headquarters in a series of caves in Yan'an
, China. The city of Yan'an, which is located in central China, had been devastated by Japanese aerial bombings in 1938. Thus, by the mid-1940s it was largely composed of thousands of caves which had been dug out of the hills that surrounded the city and the nearby Gobi Desert
. The Communist rebels, as well as reporters, such as Roderick, used the caves as a place to live and conduct their raids against their Japanese and Kuomintang opponents. Mao Zedong had been based in the city since 1935 as Ya'an was at the end of Mao's Long March
.
Roderick lived at Ya'an (also called Yenan) in the same way as everyone else, including the Communist leadership.
He lived and slept in a tiny cave with a makeshift bed and a pillow
filled with sand. He filed his reports and typed out stories with a portable typewriter
, which was next to a charcoal
brazier
. He observed Mao Zedong and other leaders during meal times, dances and lectures, which he would later chronicled in his book, "Covering China."
Roderick initially admired Mao Zedong and his supporters for their ideas saying, "I admired the fact that they were trying to do something for the poor Chinese." However, unlike other reporters, such as Edgar Snow
, Roderick was never a full supporter of their goals. His opinion of Mao became much more negative following Mao takeover of China. Roderick disliked the brutality of Mao's rule which he observed, as well as the failure of many of his policies, such as the Cultural Revolution
of the 1960s. Roderick famously called Jiang Qing
(Mme Mao) “that evil bitch” long before she became known as a key member of the Gang of Four
during the 1970s.
After he left Ya'an, Roderick covered the breakdown of peace talks between the Communists and the Kuomintang as well as the ensuing Chinese Civil War
from Beijing
. He continued to cover the Chinese Civil War from Shanghai
, Nanjing
and Beijing.
In 1948, Roderick was sent by the Associated Press to the Middle East to cover the establishment of the state of Israel. However, he remained engaged with China and its politics throughout his career. Though he often worked outside of China, he became known as a leading "China watcher" during the 1950s. He often studied scraps of information and Chinese Communist government news dispatches for clues to what was going on behind the scenes in China. Roderick though disliked to be called a "China watcher."
British Reuters
correspondent David Chipp
was allowed to open a Reuters news office in Beijing in 1956, passing over Roderick and the Associated Press. (The British government had informal relations with the Communist government at the time, while the American government did not.) Roderick was forced to report on China from Hong Kong
and Tokyo
. Finally, in 1971 Roderick was able to return to China when he accompanied the United States ping pong team on a trip to the country in 1971
. The so called "Ping Pong Diplomacy
" was the first time that Americans had been invited to China since 1949.
Roderick was able to reopen the Associated Press bureau
in Beijing in 1979, following the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China
. He became head of the Beijing bureau.
from China in 1948. He arrived in the city of Amman
, Jordan
, just two weeks after the creation of the state of Israel
. He covered the assassination of United Nations
official Count Folke Bernadotte in Jerusalem by the Israeli extremist group, Lehi
.
He next went to London
and spent five years in Paris
in the 1950s. He covered the fall of the French garrison
at Dien Bien Phu
in 1954 in Vietnam
. He was later posted again in Paris and Hong Kong.
Roderick was posted to Tokyo
, Japan
, during the late 1950s. In 1959, Roderick became acquainted with Yoshihiro Takishita. During the late 1960s, Takishita learned that a 250-year-old farmhouse
in his hometown of Gifu would be lost, following the construction of a reservoir. In order to save the farmhouse, Takishita arranged to have the it relocated to Kamakura, Japan
for Roderick to make his home. Takishita, whom Roderick adopted as his son, went on to become an architect who specializes in preserving and restoring Minka. Roderick later wrote about his experiences with the then 273 year old Kamakura farmhouse and its restoration in his book, Minka: My Farmhouse in Japan, which was published by the Princeton Architectural Press
in 2007.
Roderick was named a "Associated Press special correspondent" in 1977, becoming on of the AP's few reporters to hold the title.
He returned to Tokyo in 1980 as a special correspondent, one year after reopening the AP's office in Beijing. He was given a great deal of creative and journalistic freedom to travel throughout Asia
and report on stories of interest to him.
Roderick reluctantly retired from active work at the Associated Press in 1984 at the age of 70. He later described himself as retiring "prematurely." However, he continued to report for the AP. The Japanese government awarded him with the Order of the Sacred Treasure
for his work in reporting on Japanese and Asian issues in 1985.
Following his retirement, Roderick continued to write background stories on the Middle East and China. He spent much of his retirement at his restored farmhouse in Kamakura
. He even wrote about his own 92nd birthday, in which the Associated Press honored him with a champagne lunch in 2006 in New York City
. Also in 2006, Roderick began writing a series of monthly articles
concerning China as part of his coverage of the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
.
at his apartment in Honolulu, Hawaii
, on March 11, 2008, at the age of 93.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and foreign correspondent
Foreign correspondent
Foreign Correspondent may refer to:*Foreign correspondent *Foreign Correspondent , an Alfred Hitchcock film*Foreign Correspondent , an Australian current affairs programme...
for the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
news service. Roderick was best known for covering Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
and other Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
Communist guerillas while living with them in a cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
during the mid-1940s. Roderick continued to cover China throughout the rest of his career. He was considered to be a leading "China watcher," who covered the country from before the Chinese Communist victory of 1949 to the economic reforms
Economy of the People's Republic of China
The People's Republic of China ranks since 2010 as the world's second largest economy after the United States. It has been the world's fastest-growing major economy, with consistent growth rates of around 10% over the past 30 years. China is also the largest exporter and second largest importer of...
during the 1980s. He was once praised by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
as the man who "opened the door" to China for foreign news media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
.
Roderick's career as a correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
with the Associated Press spanned over fifty years, with postings in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Roderick reopened the Associated Press bureau
News bureau
A News bureau is an office for gathering or distributing news. Similar terms are used for specialized bureaus, often to indicate geographic location or scope of coverage: a ‘Tokyo bureau’ refers to a given news operation's office in Tokyo; foreign bureau is a generic term for a news office set up...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
in 1979. He continued to work with the AP as a special correspondent for the two decades following his retirement in 1984.
Early life
John Roderick was born in Waterville, MaineWaterville, Maine
Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. The population was 15,722 at the 2010 census. Home to Colby College and Thomas College, Waterville is the regional commercial, medical and cultural center....
, on September 14, 1914. He was orphaned when he was just 16 years old. His journalistic career began at the age of 15, when he began writing for a local newspaper, Waterville Morning Sentinel (now called The Central Maine Morning Sentinel
Morning Sentinel
The Morning Sentinel is a seven-day morning daily newspaper published in Waterville, Maine, USA. From 1998 to 2009, it was owned by Blethen Maine Newspapers, a subsidiary of The Seattle Times Company. It was then sold to MaineToday Media. The newspaper covers cities and towns in parts of Kennebec...
). He graduated from Colby College before joining the Associated Press office in Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
, in 1937.
Roderick moved to the Associated Press' office in Washington D.C. in 1942. However, he was drafted into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in 1943 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
, which was a precursor of the CIA, and sent to the city of Kunming, China, which is the capital of Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
province. Kunming was a strategically important city at the end of the Burma Road
Burma Road
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma with the southwest of China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony.The road is long and runs through rough mountain country...
with a large United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military base
Military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...
. He rejoined the Associated Press after the end of World War II.
China
Roderick remained in China as an Associated Press reporter after World War II. His first major postwar assignment was to cover the breakdown in relations between the Chinese nationalist KuomintangKuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
government and the Chinese Communist forces
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
led by Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
. The two sides had collaborated to fight the Japanese during World War II, but had turned on each other following the defeat of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Like many of the other American, British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Australian war correspondents, Roderick was a military veteran of a war (World War II).
Roderick was 31 years old when he began living with leaders of the Chinese Communist rebel movement for seven months between 1945 and 1947. He resided with the rebel leadership, who included Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
, Jiang Qing
Jiang Qing
Jiang Qing was the pseudonym that was used by Chinese leader Mao Zedong's last wife and major Communist Party of China power figure. She went by the stage name Lan Ping during her acting career, and was known by various other names during her life...
and other guerilla leaders, at their headquarters in a series of caves in Yan'an
Yan'an
Yan'an , is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China, administering several counties, including Zhidan County , which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role....
, China. The city of Yan'an, which is located in central China, had been devastated by Japanese aerial bombings in 1938. Thus, by the mid-1940s it was largely composed of thousands of caves which had been dug out of the hills that surrounded the city and the nearby Gobi Desert
Gobi Desert
The Gobi is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the...
. The Communist rebels, as well as reporters, such as Roderick, used the caves as a place to live and conduct their raids against their Japanese and Kuomintang opponents. Mao Zedong had been based in the city since 1935 as Ya'an was at the end of Mao's Long March
Long March
The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...
.
Roderick lived at Ya'an (also called Yenan) in the same way as everyone else, including the Communist leadership.
He lived and slept in a tiny cave with a makeshift bed and a pillow
Pillow
A pillow is a large cushion support for the head, usually used while sleeping in a bed, or for the body as used on a couch or chair. There are also throw pillows , which are pillows that are purely decorative and not designed for support or comfort...
filled with sand. He filed his reports and typed out stories with a portable typewriter
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
, which was next to a charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
brazier
Brazier
A brazier is a container for fire, generally taking the form of an upright standing or hanging metal bowl or box. Used for holding burning coal as well as fires, a brazier allows for a source of light, heat, or cooking...
. He observed Mao Zedong and other leaders during meal times, dances and lectures, which he would later chronicled in his book, "Covering China."
Roderick initially admired Mao Zedong and his supporters for their ideas saying, "I admired the fact that they were trying to do something for the poor Chinese." However, unlike other reporters, such as Edgar Snow
Edgar Snow
Edgar P. Snow was an American journalist known for his books and articles on Communism in China and the Chinese Communist revolution...
, Roderick was never a full supporter of their goals. His opinion of Mao became much more negative following Mao takeover of China. Roderick disliked the brutality of Mao's rule which he observed, as well as the failure of many of his policies, such as the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
of the 1960s. Roderick famously called Jiang Qing
Jiang Qing
Jiang Qing was the pseudonym that was used by Chinese leader Mao Zedong's last wife and major Communist Party of China power figure. She went by the stage name Lan Ping during her acting career, and was known by various other names during her life...
(Mme Mao) “that evil bitch” long before she became known as a key member of the Gang of Four
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes...
during the 1970s.
After he left Ya'an, Roderick covered the breakdown of peace talks between the Communists and the Kuomintang as well as the ensuing Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
from Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. He continued to cover the Chinese Civil War from Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
and Beijing.
In 1948, Roderick was sent by the Associated Press to the Middle East to cover the establishment of the state of Israel. However, he remained engaged with China and its politics throughout his career. Though he often worked outside of China, he became known as a leading "China watcher" during the 1950s. He often studied scraps of information and Chinese Communist government news dispatches for clues to what was going on behind the scenes in China. Roderick though disliked to be called a "China watcher."
British Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
correspondent David Chipp
David Chipp
David Allan Chipp was a British journalist and author. He was a former editor-in-chief of Reuters and the Press Association, and a founding member of the Press Complaints Commission...
was allowed to open a Reuters news office in Beijing in 1956, passing over Roderick and the Associated Press. (The British government had informal relations with the Communist government at the time, while the American government did not.) Roderick was forced to report on China from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Finally, in 1971 Roderick was able to return to China when he accompanied the United States ping pong team on a trip to the country in 1971
Ping Pong Diplomacy
Ping pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of ping pong players between the United States and People's Republic of China in the 1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.–China relations that paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon....
. The so called "Ping Pong Diplomacy
Ping Pong Diplomacy
Ping pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of ping pong players between the United States and People's Republic of China in the 1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.–China relations that paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon....
" was the first time that Americans had been invited to China since 1949.
Roderick was able to reopen the Associated Press bureau
News bureau
A News bureau is an office for gathering or distributing news. Similar terms are used for specialized bureaus, often to indicate geographic location or scope of coverage: a ‘Tokyo bureau’ refers to a given news operation's office in Tokyo; foreign bureau is a generic term for a news office set up...
in Beijing in 1979, following the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China
Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations
The Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations of January 1, 1979, established official relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China....
. He became head of the Beijing bureau.
Other AP assignments
Roderick was sent to the Middle EastMiddle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
from China in 1948. He arrived in the city of Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, just two weeks after the creation of the state of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He covered the assassination of United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
official Count Folke Bernadotte in Jerusalem by the Israeli extremist group, Lehi
Lehi (group)
Lehi , commonly referred to in English as the Stern Group or Stern Gang, was a militant Zionist group founded by Avraham Stern in the British Mandate of Palestine...
.
He next went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and spent five years in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the 1950s. He covered the fall of the French garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
at Dien Bien Phu
Dien Bien Phu
Điện Biên Phủ is a city in northwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Dien Bien province, and is known for the events there during the First Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during which the region was a breadbasket for the Việt Minh.-Population:...
in 1954 in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. He was later posted again in Paris and Hong Kong.
Roderick was posted to Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, during the late 1950s. In 1959, Roderick became acquainted with Yoshihiro Takishita. During the late 1960s, Takishita learned that a 250-year-old farmhouse
Farmhouse
Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a farm. It is a type of building or house which serves a residential purpose in a rural or agricultural setting. Most often, the surrounding environment will be a farm. Many farm houses are shaped like a T...
in his hometown of Gifu would be lost, following the construction of a reservoir. In order to save the farmhouse, Takishita arranged to have the it relocated to Kamakura, Japan
Kamakura, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...
for Roderick to make his home. Takishita, whom Roderick adopted as his son, went on to become an architect who specializes in preserving and restoring Minka. Roderick later wrote about his experiences with the then 273 year old Kamakura farmhouse and its restoration in his book, Minka: My Farmhouse in Japan, which was published by the Princeton Architectural Press
Princeton Architectural Press
Princeton Architectural Press is a leading publisher of architecture and design books, with over 500 titles on its backlist. It was founded in 1981 by Kevin Lippert in Princeton, NJ and moved to New York City in 1985. Since 1996, Princeton Architectural Press has been distributed in the...
in 2007.
Roderick was named a "Associated Press special correspondent" in 1977, becoming on of the AP's few reporters to hold the title.
He returned to Tokyo in 1980 as a special correspondent, one year after reopening the AP's office in Beijing. He was given a great deal of creative and journalistic freedom to travel throughout Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and report on stories of interest to him.
Roderick reluctantly retired from active work at the Associated Press in 1984 at the age of 70. He later described himself as retiring "prematurely." However, he continued to report for the AP. The Japanese government awarded him with the Order of the Sacred Treasure
Order of the Sacred Treasure
The is a Japanese Order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan as the Order of Meiji. It is awarded in eight classes . It is generally awarded for long and/or meritorious service and considered to be the lowest of the Japanese orders of merit...
for his work in reporting on Japanese and Asian issues in 1985.
Following his retirement, Roderick continued to write background stories on the Middle East and China. He spent much of his retirement at his restored farmhouse in Kamakura
Kamakura, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...
. He even wrote about his own 92nd birthday, in which the Associated Press honored him with a champagne lunch in 2006 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Also in 2006, Roderick began writing a series of monthly articles
Article (publishing)
An article is a written work published in a print or electronic medium. It may be for the purpose of propagating the news, research results, academic analysis or debate.-News articles:...
concerning China as part of his coverage of the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
.
Death
John Roderick completed his last piece for the Associated Press, a personal reflection, in February 2008. He died of heart failure and pneumoniaPneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at his apartment in Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...
, on March 11, 2008, at the age of 93.