Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75Th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992)
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 349 609 CS 507 956 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part II: Journalism History, Section B. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE Aug 92 NOTE 292p.; For other sections of these proceedings, see CS 507 955-970. For 1991 Proceedings, see ED 340 045. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC12 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Copyrights; European History; Foreign Countries; Japanese; *Journalism History; *Newspapers; Sex Fairness; Social Change IDENTIFIERS China; Foreign News; France; Hawaii; Historical Background; Idaho; Japan; Journalism Research; Religious News; Russia; Vigilantes ABSTRACT Section B of the Journalism History section of the proceedings contains the following nine papers: "Weep into Silence/Cries of Rage: Bitter Divisions in Hawaii's Japanese Press" (Tom Brislin); "Viewing the Newspaper as International: The First International Organization of Journalists Debates News Copyright 1894-1898" (Ulf Jonas Bjork); "The Commercial Roots of Foreign Correspondence: The 'New York Herald' and Foreign News, 1835-1839" (Ulf Jonas Bjork); "The Short Life of the National Courier: Christian Journalism's 'Finest Hour?'" (Ken Waters); "The Revolutionary Power of the Press: Newspapers as a Shadow Political Arena in 1848 in France and 1917 in Russia" (Lisa W. Holstein); "Broken Bridges: Protestant Missionary Journalists as Cultural Brokers in Early 19th Century China" (Charles W. Elliot); "The Treasonous Irish: Vigilantes, Conspiracies and the Mainstream Press, 1917-1918" (Mick Mulcrone); "Unequal Partners: Gender Relationships in Victorian Radical Journalism" (David R. Spencer); and "The Newspaper as Social Composer of the North Idaho Mining Frontier" (David J. Vergobbi). (RS) *********************************************************************** L.,;y1uu,LioAls suppiieo oy who are me best tnat can be made 7( from the original document. *********************************************************************** PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part II: Journalism History, Section B. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Office of Educe fionai Research and improvement INFORMATION EDUCATIONALCENTE RESOURCES(ERIC) sJer141- Z1/2:4.-464t. This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating d C' !Amor changes have been made to improve reproduction qualdY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in INS O0Cu official INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).- ment do not necessarily represent OE RI position or policy Weep Into Silence/Cries of Rage: Bitter Divisions in Hawaii's Japanese Press by Tom Brislin Department of Journalism University of Hawaii Honolulu, HI 96822 (808) 956-6131 Presented to the History Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Convention, Montreal, August 5-8, 1992 3 1 Weep Into Silence/CA.les of Rage: Bitter Divisions in Hawaii's Japanese Press Tom Brislin University of Hawaii Introduction: Naki Neri No issue divided Hawaii's pre-war American and Japanese communities as completely and bitterly as the territorial government's moves in the 1920s to regulate- and eliminate - the islands' Japanese Language Schools. The schools taught Japanese language and customs to the American citizen children of the issei- the first generation of Japanese immigrant laborers. These nisei children attended the schools in addition to their regular public school day. The Hawaii Territorial Government, fearing this nisei generation of American voters still paying homage toJapan, enacted restrictive measures designed to stymie the schools by limitingwho could teach, who and what could be taught, and how and when it could be taught. The resulting bitterness toward the American community spilled over and split the Japanese community itself, played out in full rancor in the Japanese-language press. Self-styled conservative and activist editors battled over whether to buckle under or rail against racism in the cloak of "Americanization." The conservative faction, represented by publisher Yasutaro Soga of the Nippu Jiji (Japan Times), urged a passive assimilation - getting along by going along. He called for naki neri, to "weep into silence:" Comply with the unfairregulations lest more severe measures to restrict the Japanese follow. 1 4 2 The lone activist editor was Fred Kinzaburo Makino of the Hawaii Hochi (Hawaii News) who channeled community dissension into the courts with a test case challenging the "alien school" laws. Makino's vjew of assimilation was acceptingnothing less than equal rights, treatment and acceptance for the Japanese. He raged against calls for submission - the "rubbing of hands" - and branded Soga cowardly, a "worm" and chorinbo, "to be despised." 2 The "Americanization" campaign was high on the agenda of the English-language press. The afternoon Honolulu Star-Bulletin vigorously endorsed the language school restriction policies of the territorial governor - also its owner - Wallace Rider Farrington. The publisher of the morning Honolulu Advertiser, Lorrin A. Thurston, was a key member of the territorial Citizenship Education Committee. Both newspapers became highly critical - and at one point called for the muzzling - of Makino's Hochi. They used a high-grade jingoism and barely veiled racial threats ineditorials that spread the fear of a Japanese-dominated island payinghomage more to emperor than president and "too ignorant (of American ideals) to be trusted with self-government." 3 But it was the territorial government and American dailies who failed the test on constitutional rights. In 1927 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the challenge brought by Makino's Hochi and a group of language schools, declaring the school regulation laws unconstitutional. The high court's decision was another in a long string of Makino's civil rights campaigns. Although it settled the language 3 school controversy, the deep rift between Makino's Hochi and Soga's Jiji would never heal. Makino would continue to challenge the English-language press as well, demanding an equal role for Japanese in Hawaii's society. The Japanese Language School battle focused the essential differences between the two Japanese press leaders and reflected the divisions and struggles for identity within the Japanese community. Franklin Odo and Kazuko Sinoto's study of the role of the press in developing Hawaii's Japanese community concludes: It was in the dramatic confrontations of the (Jiji and Hochi) and their publisher-editors that the essential role of the Japanese press in Hawaii may best be appreciated. The basic cultural, political and ideological developmentsamong the issei and nisei were primarily worked out on thepages of Soga's Nippu Jiji and Makino's Hawaii Hochi. The very identity of the entire ethnic group within Hawaiian society was carved out of their debates over acculturation, civil rights and labor movements. 4 Rise of the Japanese Press After the first six-year contract period for Japanese laborers was up, some elected to stay in Hawaii and start their own businesses. One was an ex-immigration inspector, Bunichiro Onome, who began publication of the first Japanese-language newspaper the mimeographed Nippon Shuho (Japan Weekly) in 1892. 5 From its beginnings the Japanese Press in Hawaii served a dual role for a community with a dual identity. It was a link- in many cases the last - between the immigrant and the home left behind. Shunzo Sakamaki, in his 1928 study of Hawaii's Japanese press wrote: There is an inevitable cleavage between the old-Japan parent and his Hawaiian-born offspring. And the gap x;etween him and the third generation is even greater. So, with stoic compliance to this strange situation, so foreign to the ways 6 4 of his people for countless generations, the Japanese in Hawaii turns to his language newspaper; here he lives in a familiar world; here he finds some measure of consolation; here he lives out his days in the realm of memory and fancy. 6 But the Japanese Press was also predominantly bilingual, seeing itself as an educational tool to help contract laborers learn English, establish their permanent residence in Hawaii, invest in local enterprises rather than send their money back to Japan, and to raise their children as Americans. 7 The Shuho passed through several hands and name-changes to become the daily Nippu Jiji, the leading Japanese voice in the early 1900s. The Jiji, under publisher Yasutaro Soga, ran a series of stories in 1908, written by Yokichi Tasaka and Motoyuki Negoro that exposed inequities in wages and housing for Japanese plantation workers. The stories attracted the attention of Fred Kinzaburo Makino, a drugstore owner fluent in English and Japanese. Makino had no legal training but would serve as an advocate or representative of non-English speaking Japanese involved in legal disputes. Makino joined Soga, Tasaka and Negoro to form the Higher Wages Association, which sought to negotiate pay and living conditions for the Japanese laborers equal to their Portuguese and Puerto Rican counterparts. Negotiations proved futile and the association called for a strike. The result was the territory's