Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:11:02.094Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The English-Only Effort, the Anti-Japanese Campaign, and Language Acquisition in the Education of Japanese Americans in Hawaii, 1915–40

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Eileen H. Tamura*
Affiliation:
Curriculum Research and Development Group, College of Education, University of Hawaii Manoa

Extract

The English-only effort was an integral part of the Americanization crusade that swept the nation during and after World War I. Underlying the crusade was the doctrine of Anglo-Saxon superiority—the conviction that American traits derived from the English, and that the future of American democracy depended upon the survival of the English language and the dominance of the Anglo-Saxon “race.”

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by the History of Education Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Hartmann, Edward G. The Movement to Americanize the Immigrant (New York, 1948), 78, 64; Barbara Miller Solomon, Ancestors and Immigrants (Cambridge, Mass., 1956), 59–61; Michael R. Olneck and Marvin Lazerson, “Education,” in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, ed. Stephan Thernstrom (Cambridge, Mass., 1980), 306–7; Jesse Knowlton Flanders, Legislative Control of the Elementary Curriculum (New York, 1925), 7–63.Google Scholar

2 Lind, Andrew W. Hawaii's People (Honolulu, 1967), 28. These categories refer to ethnic origins and not nationalities. Among the Japanese, for example, were immigrants who were subjects of Japan as well as their children, who were born in the United States and therefore American citizens. Similarly Europeans refers to immigrants from Europe as well as American citizens.Google Scholar

3 Weinberg, Daniel E.The Movement to Americanize the Japanese Community in Hawaii: An Analysis of One Hundred Percent Americanization Activity in the Territory of Hawaii as Expressed in the Caucasian Press, 1919–1923“ (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1967), viii, 54–56.Google Scholar

4 Irwin, Edward P.Ed Irwin More Than Suggests That We Should Not Try to ‘Americanize’ Orientals in Hawaii, Even If We Can,Paradise of the Pacific 37 (Dec. 1924: 55.Google Scholar

5 Weinberg, The Movement to Americanize the Japanese Community in Hawaii,1216, 29–35.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 49–53. Anxieties lessened because locally a 1920 sugar strike failed and the territorial legislature enacted laws to control foreign language schools and newspapers; nationally the Supreme Court, in a case involving Takao Ozawa, ruled in 1922 that Japanese aliens could not become American citizens, and Congress in 1924 passed an immigration law that excluded Japanese immigrants; and internationally Japan accepted a ratio of naval tonnage, worked out at the Washington Conference, that made it a secondary naval power.Google Scholar

7 N. W. Ayer and Son, N. W. Ayer & Son's Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals (Philadelphia, 1900, 1920), passim; Robert E. Park, Immigrant Press and Its Control (New York, 1922), 318. “Publications” refers to newspapers, magazines, and periodicals issued daily, three times a week, semiweekly, weekly, semimonthly, and monthly, including religious as well as nonreligious publications.Google Scholar

8 N. W. Ayer & Son's Directory, 1920, passim.Google Scholar

9 Park, Immigrant Press and Its Control, 359; Charles Jaret, “The Greek, Italian, and Jewish American Ethnic Press: A Comparative Analysis,” Journal of Ethnic Studies 7 (Summer 1979): 47–70.Google Scholar

10 Wakukawa, Ernest K. A History of the Japanese People in Hawaii (Honolulu, 1938), 330; Park, Immigrant Press and Its Control, 359; Jaret, “The Greek, Italian, and Jewish American Ethnic Press: A Comparative Analysis,” 47–70; Leonard Dinnerstein, Roger L. Nichols, and David M. Reimers, Natives and Strangers: Ethnic Groups and the Building of America (New York, 1979), 172; Mordecai Soltes, The Yiddish Press: An Americanizing Agency (New York, 1969), 176–77.Google Scholar

11 Pacific Commercial Advertiser, 20 Feb. 1920, cited in Weinberg, “The Movement to Americanize the Japanese Community in Hawaii,” 58; John E. Reinecke, Feigned Necessity: Hawaii's Attempt to Obtain Chinese Contract Labor, 1921–1923 (San Francisco, 1979), 45; memorandum dated 3 May 1921, quoted in Reinecke, Feigned Necessity, 153. Google Scholar

12 Baron, Dennis The English Only Question: An Official Language for Americans? (New Haven, 1990), 108, 110; Honolulu Advertiser, 5 Apr. 1921; Reinecke, Feigned Necessity, 157–58.Google Scholar

13 Wakukawa, A History of the Japanese People in Hawaii, 332–34; Reinecke, Feigned Necessity, 158–60; Nippu Jiji, 29 Apr. 1921.Google Scholar

14 Weiss, Bernard J.Introduction,“ in American Education and the European Immigrant, ed. Weiss, Bernard J. (Urbana, Ill., 1982), xvi; Kloss, Heinz, “German-American Language Maintenance Efforts,” in Language Loyalty in the United States: The Maintenance and Perpetuation of Non-English Mother Tongues by American Ethnic and Religious Groups, ed. Joshua A. Fishman (London, 1966), 233–37.Google Scholar

15 Okahata, James H. ed., A History of Japanese in Hawaii (Honolulu, 1971), 216.Google Scholar

16 For accounts of events leading up to the Supreme Court decision, see Ann L. Halsted, “Sharpened Tongues: The Controversy over the ‘Americanization’ of Japanese Language Schools in Hawaii, 1919–1927” (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1988), 9–18, 104–18, 144–45, 190–93; Yoshihide Matsubayashi, “The Japanese Language Schools in Hawaii and California, from 1892–1941” (Ph.D. diss., University of San Francisco, 1984), 83-86, 108, 140, 164, 183–84; and John N. Hawkins, “Politics, Education, and Language Policy: The Case of Japanese Language Schools in Hawaii,” Amerasia 5 (1978): 39–56. For discussions on the Japanese language school issue in California, see Matsubayashi, “The Japanese Language Schools in Hawaii and California, from 1892–1941,” 148–51; and Toyotomi Morimoto, “Language and Heritage Maintenance of Immigrants: Japanese Language Schools in California, 1903–1941” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1989), 72–104.Google Scholar

17 Farrington v. Tokushige 11 Fed. (2d) 710 (9th Cir. 1926); Meyer v. Nebraska 262 U.S. 390 (1923); Bartels v. Iowa 262 U.S. 404 (1923); Pierce v. Society of Sisters 268 U.S. 510 (1925).Google Scholar

18 Tyack, David B.The Perils of Pluralism: The Background of the Pierce Case,American Historical Review 74 (Oct. 1968: 74–98.Google Scholar

19 Farrington v. Tokushige 273 U.S. 284 (1927). Meyer v. Nebraska, p. 395, notes that in 1923, twenty-one states besides Nebraska had laws against the teaching of foreign languages at the primary school level. For a discussion of the court cases mentioned in this essay, see Kenneth B. O'Brien, Jr., “Education, Americanization and the Supreme Court: The 1920s,” American Quarterly 13 (1961): 161-71.Google Scholar

20 Guy Talbott, E., “Making Americans in Hawaii,” American Review of Reviews 73 (Mar. 1926: 284.Google Scholar

21 Among those who concluded that language schools interfered with learning English were Ross W. Bachman, “The Reading Program of a Small, Rural, Elementary School” (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1938), 203; Charles B. Barrett, “The Mathematical Achievement of Eighth Grade Pupils from the Standpoint of Racial Ancestry” (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1939), 73; Arthur L. Harris, “Reading Ability of Maui High School Students” (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1935), 61; and Madorah E. Smith, “The Direction of Reading and the Effect of Foreign Language School Attendance on Learning to Read,” Journal of Genetic Psychology 40 (June 1932): 422–51. Among those who concluded that language schools did not interfere with learning English were Percival M. Symonds, “The Effect of Attendance at Chinese Language Schools on Ability with the English Language,” Journal of Applied Psychology 8 (Dec. 1924): 411–23; Helen Marion Lewis, “A Study of the Speech Attitudes of the University of Hawaii Freshmen” (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1949), 8–9,34–35, 49; Reginald Bell, Public School Education of Second-Generation Japanese in California (Stanford, Calif., 1935), 98–103.Google Scholar

22 Kono, AyakoLanguage as a Factor in the Achievement of American-born Students of Japanese Ancestry“ (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1934), 9294; Edward K. Strong, The Second Generation Japanese Problem (Stanford, Calif. [1934] 1970), 167–68; Hawaii Territory, Department of Public Instruction, “Report of the Supervisor of Foreign Language Schools, 15 Apr.–Dec. 1925,” Hawaii State Archives, Honolulu.Google Scholar

23 For a fuller discussion of arguments used by proponents and opponents of Japanese language schools, see Eileen H. Tamura, “The Americanization Campaign and the Assimilation of the Nisei in Hawaii, 1920 to 1940” (Ph.D. diss., University of Hawaii, 1990), 260–70.Google Scholar

24 Kosaki, MildredThe Culture Conflicts and Guidance Needs of Nisei Adolescents“ (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1949), 49.Google Scholar

25 Kurahashi, Shoichi interview by author, 29 June 1989, Honolulu. For a discussion of the mainland Nisei's lack of interest in Japanese language school, see Marian Svensrud, “Attitudes of the Japanese toward Their Language Schools,” Sociology and Social Research 17 (1933): 259–64. For discussions of mainland and Hawaii Nisei's lack of fluency in Japanese, see Masaharu Ano, “Loyal Linguists: Nisei of World War II Learned Japanese in Minnesota,” Minnesota History 45 (1977): 274–76; and Tamotsu Shibutani, The Derelicts of Company K (Berkeley, 1978), 196. Although 45 percent of the Los Angeles Nisei who were surveyed in the late 1930s said that they attended language school willingly, that willingness did not necessarily translate into diligence in studying the language, nor did it result in fluency in the language. See Morimoto, “Language and Heritage Maintenance of Immigrants,” 140–42.Google Scholar

26 “Life Histories of Students, Selected Series from the William Carlson Smith Papers,” 1926–1927, microfilm, William Carlson Smith Papers, R8 N39, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., R1 H29, Aiko Tokimasa Reinecke, interview by author, 23 June 1988, Honolulu; Tamura, “The Americanization Campaign and the Assimilation of the Nisei in Hawaii, 1920 to 1940,” 272–76.Google Scholar

28 Endo, M.Language Schools, 1922,“ Wallace R. Farrington Papers, Miscellaneous, Hawaii State Archives.Google Scholar

29 Christina Bratt Paulston, “Bilingualism and Education,” in Language in the USA, ed. Charles A. Ferguson and Shirley Brice Heath (Cambridge, 1981), 470, 474.Google Scholar

30 Onishi, KatsumiA Study of the Attitudes of the Japanese in Hawaii toward the Japanese Language Schools“ (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1943), 11. In 1920, 98 percent of all Japanese students, or 20,196 of them, attended language school. In 1924, during the height of the controversy, the percentage dipped to 71, but the numbers of students increased to 21,503. By 1938, a decade after the Supreme Court decision, the percentage had rebounded to 86, with an enrollment of 40,017. The smaller enrollment in California (17,834 in 1934) reflected the smaller Japanese population scattered over a much larger land area there. In 1930, there were 97,456 Japanese in California, compared with 139,631 in Hawaii the same year. See Morimoto, “Language and Heritage Maintenance of Immigrants,” 76, 114, 166–77, for Japanese language school enrollment in California before World War II; and Edward K. Strong, The Second Generation Japanese Problem (Stanford, Calif., 1934), 271, for the Japanese population in the United States from 1900 to 1930.Google Scholar

31 Reinecke, John E. and Tsuzaki, Stanley M., Language and Dialect in Hawaii: A Sociological History to 1933 (Honolulu, 1969), 160.Google Scholar

32 Reinecke, John E.Pidgin English in Hawaii,American Journal of Sociology 43 (Mar. 1938: 780–81; Reinecke and Tsuzaki, Language and Dialect in Hawaii, 193–94.Google Scholar

33 Reinecke, Pidgin English in Hawaii,780. Although in the early 1900s a number of public school teachers who grew up in the Territory spoke nonstandard English, Reinecke observed that their English was farther along the continuum toward standard English than plantation pidgin. See Reinecke and Tsuzaki, Language and Dialect in Hawaii, 148–52.Google Scholar

34 Reinecke, Pidgin English in Hawaii,781. According to U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, A Survey of Education in Hawaii, Bulletin 1920, No. 16 (Washington, D.C., 1920), 22, 37, about 38 percent of public school students in 1919 were of Japanese descent. According to Hawaii Territory, Department of Public Instruction, Biennial Report to the Governor and Legislature (Honolulu, 1920), 205, 47 percent of all public school students were Japanese in 1920. According to Reinecke, the 1930 census report, claiming that 301,514 spoke English and 66,824 spoke no English, ignored the widespread use of nonstandard English.Google Scholar

35 Hawaii Territory Department of Public Instruction, Biennial Report to the Governor and Legislature (Honolulu, 1924), 30; Hawaii Territory, Department of Public Instruction, “Miscellaneous Reports and Statistical Tables,” 21 Jan. 1927, Hawaii State Archives.Google Scholar

36 Hawaii Territory Department of Public Instruction, Biennial Report to the Governor and Legislature (Honolulu, 1926), 9192.Google Scholar

37 Stueber, RalphHawaii: A Case Study in Development Education, 1778–1960“ (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1964), 305; Hawaii Territory, Department of Public Instruction, Biennial Report, 1926, 91–92.Google Scholar

38 Hawaii Territory Department of Public Instruction, Biennial Report to the Governor and Legislature (Honolulu, 1928), 108–9; “Life Histories of Students,” R2 H49.Google Scholar

39 “Life Histories of Students,” R3 N21.Google Scholar

40 Reinecke and Tsuzaki, Language and Dialect in Hawaii, 107; Jane Stratford, “Cross-Section of a High School Student's Life” (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1955), 57; Shichiro Miyamoto, “A Study of the Japanese Language Ability of the Second and Third Generation Japanese Children in a Honolulu Language School” (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1937), 27.Google Scholar

41 Reinecke and Tsuzaki, Language and Dialect in Hawaii, 179–80, 190. Nancy Faires Conklin and Margaret A. Lourie point out that standard English is only one of many dialects spoken in the United States, and that it has held the most prestige because it has been the dialect of the powerful upper and professional classes. Conklin and Lourie, A Host of Tongues: Language Communities in the United States (New York, 1983), 96–99.Google Scholar

42 Kono, Language as a Factor in the Achievement of American-born Students of Japanese Ancestry,9294; William N. Brigance, “How Good Is the English of High School Graduates in Hawaii?” Hawaii Educational Review 26 (Jan. 1938): 133–34. See also Eleanor D. Breed, “A Study of the English Vocabulary of Junior High School Pupils” (M.A. thesis, University of Hawaii, 1928), 1–44. According to Hawaii Territory, Department of Public Instruction, “Term Reports, 1936,” Hawaii State Archives, 55 percent of the public high school seniors in December 1936 were of Japanese descent.Google Scholar

43 Misaki, HisakichiThe Effect of Language Handicap on Intelligence Tests of Japanese Children“ (M.A. thesis, Stanford University, 1927), 102.Google Scholar

44 Baron, The English-Only Question, 151–57; Anthony P. R. Howatt, A History of Language Teaching (Oxford, 1984), 212–28.Google Scholar

45 “Life Histories of Students,” R5 N270; Timmy T. Hirata, interview by author, 30 June 1988, Honolulu; Yoshitaka Takashiba, interview by Michiko Kodama, 23 Jan. 1981, transcript, Ethnic Studies Oral History Project, Social History of Kona (Honolulu, 1981), 1: 13–14.Google Scholar

46 “Life Histories of Students,” R3 HH99, R17 R.M., and R7 N166.Google Scholar

47 Conklin and Lourie, A Host of Tongues, 247; Robbins Burling, English in Black and White (New York, 1973), 133–34.Google Scholar

48 Conklin and Lourie, A Host of Tongues, 101; Reinecke, “Pidgin English in Hawaii,” 783, 787–88; Reinecke and Tsuzaki, Language and Dialect in Hawaii, 156–57, 178.Google Scholar

49 Wist, Benjamin O. A Century of Public Education in Hawaii (Honolulu, 1940), 161; Riley Allen, “Education and Race Problems in Hawaii,” American Review of Reviews (Dec. 1921), 616.Google Scholar

50 Meller, NormanHawaii's English Standard Schools,“ Legislative Reference Bureau, Report No. 3, Honolulu, 1948, 4–5; Tamura, “The Americanization Campaign and the Assimilation of the Nisei in Hawaii, 1920 to 1940,” 447. In 1949, twenty-five years after the first standard school opened, the territorial legislature passed a measure phasing out these standard schools, and the last class of students attending them graduated from high school in 1960.Google Scholar

51 Hawaii Territory Department of Public Instruction, “Miscellaneous Reports and Statistical Tables,” 21 Jan. 1927, Hawaii State Archives, 9; Conklin and Lourie, A Host of Tongues, 246.Google Scholar

52 Nippu Jiji, 31 Mar. 1925, 19 June 1920, and 23 Feb. 1925; Hawaii Hochi, 22 July 1926 and 20 Feb. 1931; Honolulu Star Bulletin, 19 Apr. 1925, cited in Stueber, “Hawaii: A Case Study in Development Education, 1778–1960,” 249.Google Scholar

53 Tamura, The Americanization Campaign and the Assimilation of the Nisei in Hawaii,228; Morimoto, “Language and Heritage Maintenance of Immigrants,” 56–59; Roger. Daniels, Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850 (Seattle, 1988), 136–37.Google Scholar

54 Farrington, Wallace R. Papers, 1921–1929, Territorial Departments, Public Instruction, “Foreign Language Schools,” Hawaii State Archives.Google Scholar

55 Quoted in Stueber, “Hawaii: A Case Study in Development Education, 1778–1960,” 254–55.Google Scholar

56 Burling, English in Black and White, 130–31.Google Scholar

57 Paulston, Bilingualism and Education,476.Google Scholar