Japanese Language in Hawai'i

History of Japanese-Language Schools

The history of Japanese language education in Hawai'i starts with the arrival of Japanese immigrants from 1885 through 1924. In 1885, a mighty famine occurred in Japan, and Japanese farmers became genuinely distressed. During this period, Hawai'i recruited a great number of farm laborers for its thriving sugar cane plantations. For Japanese farmers, working in Hawai'i was a highly attractive prospect because the wages in the United States were better than they were in Japan. These Japanese immigrants were a highly selected and educated population. Because immigration was competitive, the Japanese government used educational attainment as a prerequisite condition for emigration. As a result, most of the early emigrants, both men and women, were literate and had 2 to 6 years of basic education. The Japanese government also imposed strict health examinations for prospective emigrants; therefore, rural farmers in poor physical condition were excluded. A large proportion of these immigrant workers were in their 20s. Meyer Weinberg mentions that in the early 1900s, 39% of the population in Hawai'i consisted of Japanese immigrants.

Eileen Tamura explains that the first Japanese-language school opened soon after the first group of Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawai'i in 1892. Most of the early Japanese immigrants did not intend to teach their children English or American culture because the Japanese government ruled that Japanese [Page 408]citizens must return to Japan within 3 years. Weinberg explains that Japanese immigrants felt the need to maintain proper Japanese language and culture because they considered themselves to be temporary workers rather than immigrants.

To accommodate the educational needs of young Japanese children, Japanese-language schools were built almost immediately upon arrival. Another incentive to create Japanese-language schools was that there were no public schools available in the plantation areas where the Japanese worked. As Weinberg stresses, even if such schools had existed, plantation managers would not have allowed the children of Japanese workers to attend the public schools. Hidehiko Ushijima reports that although the first Japanese-language school started with only 30 students, the number of schools increased rapidly. Weinberg and Kimi Kondo recount that by 1939, at their peak, there were 163 schools with 38,000 students. According to Kondo, until 1917, Japanese-language schools in Hawai'i were under the control of the Japanese Ministry of Education. The Japanese government made efforts to develop Japanese citizens with Japanese values and “virtues” through these schools. The schools were required to use the textbooks and teaching materials that were mandated for use in public schools in Japan. After 1917, the Japanese government lost control of the Japanese-language schools because of pressure from the U.S government. However, Japanese-language schools continued to play a significant role as cultural centers in Japanese communities.

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