Name/Title
Banzai To The U. S. Fleet CachetDescription
In its early years, the Nippu Jiji was a paper directed at Hawaii's Japanese plantation workers. These laborers and, later, their families, made up the bulk of its subscription, and so the paper's content was largely catered to their interests and concerns. In 1909, exploitative conditions on the plantations was at the top of the list, and under Yasutaro Soga's direction the Nippu Jiji became active in disseminating information related to the newly formed labor movement. The paper published in-depth accounts of the conditions in the fields and company housing, pushing the issue further into the public eye and pulling plantation owners and haole politicians into the debate.
[World War II and later years Martial law was declared in Hawaii a few hours after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and Governor Joseph Poindexter conceded his authority to Commanding General Walter Short. Five days later the Nippu Jiji, along with every other Japanese-language newspaper, was forced to close. Yasutaro Soga and others at the paper were interned. However, the military government soon discovered that without the Japanese newspapers they had no way of communicating with the many Issei who could not read English, and on January 9, 1942, the Nippu Jiji and its main pre-war rival, the Hawaii Hochi, were ordered to reopen and operate under Short's directives. Military supervising staff were assigned by the censorship office, and took over administration of the newspaper and much of the English writing. Existing staff members translated the English articles into Japanese, which were then sent on to FBI or Army linguists for approval before going into print.Created By
hawaiiancovers@gmail.comCreate Date
May 20, 2023Update Date
August 27, 2023
