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Japanese newspapers in Hawaii (view source)
Revision as of 15:30, 26 June 2014
, 15:30, 26 June 2014Created page with " Japanese-language newspapers played a key role in circulating news and information, both about local affairs in Hawaii, and events in Japan, among members of the [[Japanese i..."
Japanese-language newspapers played a key role in circulating news and information, both about local affairs in Hawaii, and events in Japan, among members of the [[Japanese immigration to Hawaii|Japanese community in Hawaii]] in its early decades. Some continued to circulate today.
Within a few decades of the [[1885]] arrival of the first official Japanese contract laborers in the islands, there were dozens of Japanese-language newspapers being published in the islands, including the ''Hawai Timuzu'' ("Hawaii Times"), ''Hawai Mainichi'', ''Hawai Asahi'', ''Taiyô'' ("The Sun"), ''Kazan'' or ''Kwazan'' ("Volcano"), ''Hawai Shokumin Shinbun'' ("Hawaii Workers Newspaper"), and ''Kona Hankyô'' ("Kona Echo"), many of them employing the now-archaic ''[[kanji]]'' for Hawaii, 布哇, rather than the ''[[katakana]]'' spelling more typical today (ハワイ). These papers played a key role in informing members of the Japanese community, especially those who did not speak English or Hawaiian, about local events and affairs, as well as events and affairs taking place in the United States, Japan, and elsewhere, covering, as most newspapers do, not only major political events, but also including calendars of local events such as plays, exhibitions, and festivals, advertisements for local businesses, and poetry & short stories contributed by members of the community. Since news had to travel by ship initially, news was often weeks out of date, but Hawaii became connected to the mainland United States by cable in [[1903]], and by wireless service in 1914.
While many of these newspapers overlapped, of course, in their coverage, as they proliferated, they also specialized, with many Japanese-language newspapers coming to represent particular political positions, interests, and/or portions of society. In their reporting on political issues of particular import to the Japanese community, such as immigration, labor policies, voting rights, and language schools, newspapers played a prominent role in both shaping and reflecting, as well as circulating or distributing, rhetoric and discourses on multiple sides of each issue, often playing a role too in motivating political participation or activism.
==The First Newspapers==
The first was the ''Nippon Shûhô'' ("Japan Weekly News"), which was begun as a weekly by Onome Bunichirô, with the first issue coming out June 3, [[1892]]. Onome was a former storeowner and coffee farmer who first came to Hawaii as one of the interpreters officially appointed by the Hawaiian Bureau of Immigration to serve the Japanese community in [[1886]], in accordance with the [[Convention of Japanese Immigration]] drafted that year. The paper cost, initially, ten cents an issue, or 35 cents a month, and put a particular emphasis on criticism of the Bureau of Immigration for its arrogant officials and support or condoning of poor treatment of Japanese workers.
The ''Hawaii Shinbun'' ("Hawaii Newspaper") came soon afterwards, started by physician Uchida Jûkichi, head of the Japanese League, an organization started in [[1893]] with the aim of pushing for the restoration of Japanese suffrage in Hawaii, lost in the Bayonet Constitution of [[1887]].
Where these earliest newspapers were mimeographed, the first newspaper printed with movable type came out in [[1894]]. This was the ''Hawaii Shinpô'' ("Hawaii News"), started by storeowner Shiozawa Chûzaburô. This paper was one of the chief ones whose attacks on Japanese immigration companies, which greedily imposed great fees on poor immigrants purely in the pursuit of profit, led to the private sector being banned from involvement in such immigration matters in [[1905]]. Shiba Sometarô, who succeeded Shiozawa as head of the ''Hawaii Shinpô'', opposed the major plantation workers' strike in [[1909]] and was physically attacked as a result.
The ''Nippu Jiji'' ("Japan-Hawaii Affairs"), another major Hawaiian Japanese-language newspaper, started as ''Yamato'' in [[1895]], changing its name to ''Yamato Shinbun'' the following year. Though originally a mouthpiece for the immigration companies and their supporters, and including some pieces by prominent Japanese Meiji intellectuals, the paper became a powerful supporter of the workers' strikes and labor unions following the 1909 strike, after being taken over by Sôga Yasutarô, a former staffer of the ''Hawaii Shinpô''. Sôga took over the paper in [[1905]], changing its name the following year from ''Yamato Shinbun'' to ''Nippu Jiji'', and in 1909, with a circulation of around 1,000, began to publish pieces by the leaders of the workers' movement. The ''Hawaii Shinpô'' and ''Hawaii Nichinichi'' ("Hawaii Daily"), with circulations around 1,200 each, meanwhile, opposed the strike. These latter papers were later found out to have been bribed by the plantation owners, however, earning increased community support for the ''Nippu Jiji''. Though it took a conservative stand on the issue of [[Japanese schools in Hawaii|language schools]] in the 1920s, opposing court appeals to loosen restrictions on the schools, the ''Nippu Jiji'' (later, the ''Hawaii Times'') remained a prominent paper in the community all the way until 1985, when it ceased publication.
The ''Hawaii Nichinichi Shinbun'' was started by Kimura Yoshigorô in [[1899]] as the ''Honolulu Shinbun'' ("Honolulu Newspaper"). It was taken over shortly afterwards by [[Okumura Takie]], a prominent figure in the origins of the Japanese Christian community in Hawaii, and Mitamura Toshiyuki, and then taken over again in [[1903]] by Tsurushima Hanzô, who established the name ''Hawaii Nichinichi Shinbun''. It was also popularly referred to as the ''aka shinbun'' ("red newspaper"), as it was printed on pink paper. The ''Hawaii Nichinichi'' and ''Hawaii Shinpô'' voiced strong criticism of the immigration companies in 1905, but then turned against the workers' movement in 1909, and lost popular backing, shuttering in 1916.
The ''Hawaii Hôchi'', which remains in active circulation today, was founded in [[1912]] by Makino Kinzaburô, and was a prominent paper in criticizing the policies of the Territory of Hawaii government towards Japanese language schools in the Territory.
Smaller papers were also started by the Japanese communities on the neighbor islands. The Big Island had the ''Kona Hankyô'' (pub. 1897-1940), the ''Hilo Shinbun'' (est. 1898), the ''Kau Shûhô'', ''Ookala Shûhô'', ''Hilo Shinpô'', ''Kazan'', and ''Jiyû Shinbun'', while Maui had the ''Maui Shinshi'' (est. by [[Tanaka Giichi]] in 1901), ''Maui Shûkan Shinbun'', ''Maui Shinbun'', ''Maui Hôchi'', and ''Maui Record'', Kauai had the ''Kauai Shinpô'', started by Shiba Sometarô in [[1904]] prior to his getting stabbed for his opposition to the 1909 workers' strike.
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==References==
*Franklin Odo and Kazuko Sinoto, ''A Pictorial History of the Japanese in Hawaii 1885-1924'', Bishop Museum (1985), 145-147.
*A fuller list of Japanese-language newspapers in the islands can be found on Odo and Sinoto, p148.
[[Category:Meiji Period]]
[[Category:Historical Documents]]