Japanese came to Hawai‘i to work on the plantations between 1885 and 1924, when limits were placed on the numbers permitted entry.
“The government contract workers who arrived in Hawaii in the 1880s did not have much time or energy to worry about their children’s education.”
“Their only aim was to make enough money to return to Japan. With mothers going to work from early in the morning the children were virtually left to themselves all day long.”
“Takie Okumura, posted in Hawaii as a minister after his graduation from Doshisha University, was astonished as he made his pastoral rounds at how little communication the immigrant children had with their parents.” (Duus)
“Christian missionary Reverend Takie Okumura, who started Honolulu’s first Japanese language school, was moved by a little girl’s peculiar Japanese: ‘Me mama hanahana yōkonai’ in response to his question ‘Are you with your mother?’[“
“He learned that ‘me mama’ was pidgin for ‘my mother’, ‘hanahana’ was the Hawaiian word for ‘work,’ and ‘yōkonai’ was a Japanese expression equivalent to ‘cannot come.’”
“Okumura credits this exchange for his strong urge to establish a school.”
“After several failed attempts to receive support from either the Japanese consul general in Honolulu or politicians in Japan, Reverend Okumura decided to establish a school independently.”
“On April 6, 1896, he opened the Nihonjin Shōgakkō (Japanese Elementary School) in a room of the Queen Emma Hall, originally used as Queen Emma’s residence, with 30 students. Okumura purchased desks and chairs from $15 in donations and was able to use the room for free.”
“The first Japanese language program at a public school was established at McKinley High School in Honolulu on October 1, 1924.
“The first instructor of Japanese language at the public school was University of Hawaii Japanese Professor Tasuku Harada, who had a close relationship with Reverend Okumura. Harada was a former president of Dōshisha University (Congregationalist).” (Asato)
“Both Harada and Okumura were on the Japanese committee of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association and members of the Textbook Revision Joint Committee.”
“This Japanese language program was arranged by the Committee for Oriental Language Studies, chaired by University of Hawaii President Arthur L. Dean, who also was an American member of the Joint Committee for Textbook Revision.”
“The minutes of the Japanese committee of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, dated September 10, a month before the Japanese program at McKinley High School began, reveals who was involved with this movement.”
“During the meeting, Treasurer Theodore Richards expressed his concern about female high-school students who attended the Hongwanji School for advanced Japanese language study, saying that they ‘were getting led away from Christianity.’”
“Richards was discussing the Hongwanji Girls’ High School (Hawai Kōtō Jogakkō) established in 1910, the girls’ counterpart of Hongwanji’s junior high school, Hawai Chūgakkō, established three years earlier.”
“Okumura and Imamura had a long history of confrontation over creating their own high schools. Imamura invited Ryūsaku Tsunoda, who later established Japanese Studies at Columbia University, to be principal of the first Japanese junior high school, the Hawai Chūgakkō.”
“Okumura tried to compete by offering a junior-high-school-level class at his “secular” Honolulu Nihonjin Shōgakkō, although this advanced class was short-lived because of low enrollment.”
“Then, in 1910 the Hongwanji Girls’ High School opened, and Okumura again countered by expanding his Japanese school with both its junior high school and girls’ school, renaming it the Hawaii Chūō Gakuin or Central Institute.”
“So it was no surprise that in 1924, after discussion, the Evangelical Association appointed Harada and Okumura to ‘investigate the matter of organizing a Japanese high school.’”
“At their next meeting, on October 8, 1924, Reverend William D. Westervelt reported that Japanese instruction at McKinley High School was arranged by working with Superintendent Willard E. Givens, University of Hawaii President Dean, DPI supervisor of foreign language schools Henry B. Schwartz and McKinley High School Principal Miles E. Cary. “
“Westervelt also reported that the University of Hawaii agreed to recognize the credits students earned from the Japanese program at the high school as entrance credits for the university. Okumura stated that ‘this plan was satisfactory for the present taking care of the Japanese High School teaching’”.
“Although Japanese instruction began at public schools in 1924, it did not seem to prosper. Besides McKinley High School, only one other public school seems to have offered Japanese. Reverend Kikujiro C. Kondo of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association began teaching Japanese at Maui High School in 1925 while taking care of the Paia church on Maui.”
“Reverend Kondo later moved to Honolulu to take over the McKinley High School Japanese program from Mr. Kunimoto, Harada’s successor, in 1926.” (Asato)
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Peter, thank you for this article ! FYI (and I have no idea how to get more info for you) a 94 year-old friend of mine here on Kauai went to “Japanese School” after regular school in Port Allen, Eleele, Kauai, when she was about 5 years old. That would mean that – in roughly about 1924 – there was at least one school teaching Japanese language on Kauai.
Aloha,
Mary
Peter, mahalo again, and here is another tidbit about Japanese Language early on in Hanapepe, Kauai:
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: MASAKO OGAWA. retired teacher
Masako (Kubota) Ogawa was born December 24. 1913 in Hanapepe. Her father.
Saichiro was the principal of the Japanese Language School in Hanapepe until 1922 when he moved his fan:ily to Waimea to become the language school principal there .
Masako was an 11 year old elementary school student in Waimea at the time
of the 1924 strike. Strikers lived at the abandoned Hanapepe Japanese language School where she had been born. She remembers seeing the bodies
of the dead strikers at the Waimea Courthouse.
Masako graduated from the University of Hawaii and taught high school
Japanese until her retirement. She currently resides in Kapaa and is
active with the Kauai retired teachers.
************************************************************************************
Peter, for further info on this subject you might be interested in contacting Andy Bushnell who is a history teacher at (808)822-1651.
Aloha,
Mary
You may be interested in the study of Japanese at Punahou. Interesting for what today is still mistakenly called a “haole school”:
Japanese was first offered on campus in 1943 by Mrs. Chiyo Takahashi. It was an extra curricular offering for which additional tuition was charged. (“Japanese Course Taught This Year.” Ka Punahou. 12 Oct. 1943: 2.) A similar opportunity was offered in 1954 when Makiki Christian Church’s retired Reverend Chiyokichi Furuta taught forty-five students elementary Japanese. (“Students struggle to Learn Speech of Japanese Land.” Ka Punahou. 10 Mar. 1954: 1.) Japanese became a regular course offering in 1959. A two-year course of study was instituted by the 1960-1961 school year. Courses were offered in the 7th grade in 1970. Study to the fourth year became possible in the 1974-1975 school year. Six year study came in 1978-1979. Japanese language student enrollment would surpass that of all the European languages in 1987-1988 with one-third of all language students taking Japanese by the following year. By April 1990 Punahou could claim the distinction of offering the largest Japanese language program in the country. Enrollment included 309 first and third grade students, 704 academy and 125 summer students. The textbook, ADVENTURES IN JAPANESE, was written by two Punahou teachers and is in use in classrooms nationwide.