The Japanese Problem, also referred to as the Japanese Menace or the Japanese Conspiracy, was the name given to racial tensions in Hawaii between the European-American sugarcane plantation owners and the Japanese immigrants hired to work in the cane fields.
The term "Japanese Problem" came into use during the 1920 Oahu Sugar Strike.
Following the strike, powerful European-Americans like Walter Dillingham and Harry Baldwin were vocal about their concerns regarding the increasing Japanese population in Hawaii. They worried that the increasing Japanese population would eventually affect politics in Hawaii as the voter base changed. Ultimately, they were most concerned that the Japanese were loyal to Japan, and would allow the Japanese Empire to claim Hawaii. [1]
Wallace Farrington pointed out in a speech in 1920 that even though the strikes were caused by "malcontents and agitators", the Japanese had to be given the chance to Americanize. This notion was pushed back against by people both within Hawaii and on the U.S. Mainland, like Valentine McClatchy, who claimed that the Japanese could not integrate into American culture because they held on to their own culture and religion too fervently. [2]
Hawaii is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) southwest of the U.S. mainland. It is the only state not on the North American mainland, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state in the tropics.
Kalākaua, sometimes called The Merrie Monarch, was the last king and penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, reigning from February 12, 1874, until his death in 1891. Succeeding Lunalilo, he was elected to the vacant throne of Hawaiʻi against Queen Emma. Kalākaua had a convivial personality and enjoyed entertaining guests with his singing and ukulele playing. At his coronation and his birthday jubilee, the hula, which had hitherto been banned in public in the kingdom, became a celebration of Hawaiian culture.
Glen Grant was a Hawaiian historian, author and folklorist. He was primarily known for his Obake Files, a collection of articles and stories regarding native and imported folktales and mythology in Hawaii. Grant was also the author of the Chicken Skin series of ghost story anthologies, as well as host of the long-running radio show of the same name.
Puerto Rican migration to Hawaii began when Puerto Rico's sugar industry was devastated by two hurricanes in 1899. The devastation caused a worldwide shortage in sugar and a huge demand for the product from Hawaii. Consequently, Hawaiian sugarcane plantation owners began to recruit the jobless, but experienced, laborers from Puerto Rico. In thirteen separate groups, 5883 Puerto Rican men, women and children traveled by ship, train then ship again to the islands of Hawaii to begin their new lives in the sugar plantations.
Pablo Manlapit was a migrant laborer, lawyer, labor organizer, and activist in Hawaii, California, and the Philippines.
The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was a coup d'état against Queen Liliʻuokalani, which took place on January 17, 1893, on the island of Oʻahu and led by the Committee of Safety, composed of seven foreign residents and six Hawaiian Kingdom subjects of American descent in Honolulu. The Committee prevailed upon American minister John L. Stevens to call in the U.S. Marines to protect the national interest of the United States of America. The insurgents established the Republic of Hawaii, but their ultimate goal was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which occurred in 1898.
Sugarcane was introduced to Hawaiʻi by its first inhabitants in approximately 600 AD and was observed by Captain Cook upon arrival in the islands in 1778. Sugar quickly turned into a big business and generated rapid population growth in the islands with 337,000 people immigrating over the span of a century. The sugar grown and processed in Hawaiʻi was shipped primarily to the United States and, in smaller quantities, globally. Sugarcane and pineapple plantations were the largest employers in Hawaiʻi. Today the sugarcane plantations are gone, production having moved to other countries.
The Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands which existed from 1795 to 1893. It was established during the late 18th century when Hawaiian chief Kamehameha I, from the island of Hawaiʻi, conquered the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi, and unified them under one government. In 1810, the Hawaiian Islands were fully unified when the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau voluntarily joined the Hawaiian Kingdom. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom, the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.
1920 Politics also referred to as "Jim Crow" circa 1930, was a Democratic political strategy to reassert the authority of the white race and promote American Anglo-Saxon values, in what was then the US Territory of Hawaii.
The Oahu sugar strike of 1920 was a multiracial strike in Hawaii of two unions, the Filipino American Filipino Labor Union and the Japanese American Federation of Japanese Labor. The labor action involved 8,300 sugar plantation field workers out on strike from January to July 1920.
The Nippu Jiji, later published as the Hawaii Times, was a Japanese-English language newspaper based in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Established as the Yamato Shimbun by Shintaro Anno in 1895, the paper began as a six-page semi-weekly printed on a lithograph machine, and changed hands four times before being taken over by Yasutaro "Keiho" Soga in 1905. Soga changed the name of the paper to the Nippu Jiji, Japanese for "newspaper for telling timely news," on November 3, 1906, and under his direction the paper was expanded to a twelve-page daily printed on a rotary press with a circulation of 15,000.
Tong Kee, also known as T. Aki, was a Chinese immigrant and businessman who settled in the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1886–87, he was embroiled in the Aki opium scandal,, a bribery corruption scandal involving King Kalākaua and Junius Kaʻae reneging on a bribe Aki made to secure the sale of an opium license.
Shunzo Sakamaki was a Japanese studies professor at the University of Hawaiʻi. Sakamaki Hall, where the History department at the University of Hawaiʻi is housed, was built after his death and named in his honor.
Tasuku Harada(原田 助) was a Japanese pastor and the president of Doshisha University from 1907 to 1919. Harada started the University of Hawaii's Japanese Studies department in 1922.
Takie Okumura(奥村 多喜衛) was a Christian minister from Japan. He was the founder of the Makiki Christian Church in Honolulu, Hawaii, the "Okumura Boys and Girls Home", and some of Hawaii's first Japanese language schools.
Fred Kinzaburo Makino(フレッド 金三郎 牧野) was a Territory of Hawaiʻi newspaper publisher and community activist. He was the founder and first editor of the Hawaii Hochi, a Japanese-language newspaper for Japanese laborers. He advocated for workers rights, and led a strike in 1909. Makino also advocated against the regulation of Japanese-language schools.
Motoyuki Negoro(根来源之) was a journalist and strike leader in Hawaii.
The Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce(ホノルル日本人商工会議所) is a business organization that promotes economic growth in Hawaii and Japan.
Jack Wayne Hall was an American labor organizer and trade unionist. He was the Hawaii Regional Director of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
The Hawaii Federation of Japanese Labor was a labor union in Hawaii formed in 1921. In the early 1900s, Japanese migrants in Hawaii were the majority of plantation workers in the sugar cane field. These individuals were underpaid and overworked, as well as continuously discriminated against by White people on the Hawaiian Islands. A day in the life of a laborer in Hawaii during this period was controlled almost entirely by the plantation owner; and in addition, many laborers were bound by contract to a 3-5 year period, and faced repercussions if this contract was deserted. Alongside the Japanese, there was a very high population of Filipino field workers who advocated for higher wages through the Filipino Labor Union of Hawaii. The Filipino Labor Union presented for higher wages and threatened a worker strike in 1919, and inspired founder Noboru Tsutsumi to organize the Federation of Japanese Labor in 1921.
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