Kinzaburo^[*] Makino

Makino was so well known in Hawaii that it was said there was no one not acquainted with him. Tall and stocky, he attracted attention wherever he went. He sported a Panama hat, immaculate white suits, flashy bowties, and white shoes and always smoked a fat cigar. Unlike most Japanese, he drove to work each morning in a large Ford. With his thick neck, jutting jawline, and prominent fleshy nose, Makino looked more "foreign" than Japanese. Among Caucasians he was known as "Fred" Makino, but in the Japanese community he had a reputation as a rough-and-tumble character. In 1909 the Japanese consul general had described him as "of mixed blood, notorious for being irresponsible."^[31]

Makino, who was born in Yokohama, was indeed a mixed-blood (or hapa as the Hawaiians said). His father was Joseph Higginbottom, a British woolen merchant, and his mother was Kin Makino, a Japanese woman. He had two older brothers, an older sister, and a younger brother. When he was four years old his father died in Shanghai from typhoid fever, and he was reared by his mother. Although Yokohama was a city with many foreign inhabitants, it is not difficult to conjecture what his memories of childhood as a child of mixed parentage with no father must have been. He finished school through the upper primary level. Whenever he could he went to the judo studio, and he was known on the street as a youngster quick to get into a fight. As he grew up he became a regular in the Motomaki pleasure quarter, and he was known among the geisha in Honolulu as "Kin-san," unequaled in his talent for singing Japanese ballads and ditties.

Although his mother had remarried, Kinzaburo and his stepfather never got along. So when Kinzaburo was twenty-two years old his second older brother, Eijiro^[*] , who had taken over their father's business, arranged for him to go to Hawaii. When he arrived, his eldest brother, Jo^[*] , was already successful as a merchant at Naalehu Plantation on the Big Island. After keeping the books at his brother's store for three years,

Kinzaburo^[*] opened the Makino Drug Store in Honolulu. The following year he married Michie, the daughter of an early government contract immigrants. Michie's parents had strongly opposed this marriage because Kinzaburo was of mixed blood, and not a few among the Japanese community called him a hapa behind his back. Despite this, Kinzaburo seemed to feel at home in Hawaii with its ethnically and racially diverse population. Except to return for his mother's funeral, he never again set foot in Japan.

In 1909, six years after Makino opened his drugstore, the first Oahu strike took place. The main instigators were Yasutaro^[*] Soga^[*] of Yamato shinbun and Motoyuki Negoro, a recent graduate of a mainland law school. Upset by the conditions of the immigrant laborers, Soga used his newspaper to fan worker demands for a wage increase. At the recommendation of the Honolulu merchants, Makino was named the chairman of the High Wage Association. The consul general criticized him for "gathering people like a low-class charlatan healer and holding lecture meetings to court popularity, just to make personal attacks and heap abuse and slander on the HSPA."^[32] His charismatic presence at once turned him into a hero in the Japanese community. Arrested along with Soga and others, he was convicted of inciting the strike, but he had become such a popular figure that each day during his four months in prison his supporters delivered more food than he could eat. Seeing how influential newspapers could be, Makino founded the Hawaii hochi^[*] as a platform for his opinions. After the strike Makino and Soga became estranged as a result of their disagreement on many issues. It can be said that Makino started his own newspaper out of his antagonism toward the "snobbish" Soga.

Yasutaro Soga, a native of Tokyo four years Makino's senior, had graduated from the English Law School (the predecessor of Chuo^[*] University) before going to Hawaii. After doing clerical work at a Japanese store on a plantation, he joined the Yamato shinbun , the oldest Japanese newspaper in Honolulu, and eventually became editor-in-chief and president. After the 1909 strike, the newspaper changed its name to Nippu jiji . Until the 1930s, the Nippu jiji was the only Japanese-language paper under special agreement with the Associated Press. Soga, a soft-spoken intellectual, was known as a writer with sound judgment. Under the pen name Keiho^[*] , he wrote poems as well, and, a practicing Christian, he attended church on Sundays.

The personalities of Soga and Makino were quite different. Seiei Wa-

kikawa, a student at the University of Hawaii, went around to Japanese community leaders each month to seek contributions for the Japanese kindergarten. Soga^[*] always handed him $2, saying, "Thank you for your efforts." But Makino would jangle his keys and open his safe as if Wakikawa were a nuisance, then toss a $1 coin to him. Wakikawa went on to study at Tokyo University and eventually became editor-in-chief of Nippu jiji .

After the 1909 strike Soga deepened his association with the elite of Honolulu's Japanese community: the consuls general, the branch managers of Sumitomo Bank, and the branch managers of the Yokohama Specie Bank. He served as director on the boards of the Prince Fushimi Memorial Scholarship Association, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, and the Rotary Club. The only Japanese whose names were listed in the English-language directory of prominent Hawaiians were Soga and the Reverend Takie Okumura.

In stark contrast to Soga, Makino did not frequent the consulate, and only once did he join a group greeting a Japanese warship when it put in to port. From its founding, the Hawaii hochi^[*] vowed that it "would not bow to any power or pressure," and it regarded the Nippu jiji as its only competition.

Although the Hawaii hochi and Nippu jiji were located just one block apart, Makino and Soga did not acknowledge each other when they passed on the street. There was intense rivalry between the reporters on the two newspapers, and they clashed on nearly every issue: if the Nippu jiji called something white, the Hawaii hochi would call it black. The catchphrase among the Hawaii hochi staff was, "Don't lose out to Nippu ." By opposing the Nippu in its editorial stance, the Hochi^[*] sought to cut into its rival's circulation.

Soga penned articles as editor-in-chief, but Makino did not write a single sentence. Reading through newspapers from Japan and the English-language newspapers, Makino spat out his opinions each morning to "Fighting Haga," the editor-in-chief, who wrote them up as articles or editorials. Haga's poison pen turned Makino's thunderous shouts of "Those idiots!" into copy and established the Hochi reputation as "Hawaii's ruffian."

Makino hired all types of people as reporters. Haga was said to have been an agent of the HSPA during the 1909 strike, but Makino turned this former enemy into his right-hand man. He also persuaded Teisuke Terasaki, a gentle teacher active in his church, to join the paper, and it

was Terasaki, not Haga, that he welcomed into his private residence. Makino later hired Communist party members who were under official surveillance. "It's good to have a cause no matter what it is," he said.

At the time of the 1920 strike the Hochi^[*] was serializing Chobei^[*] Banzuiin , a novel about a commoner ruffian who risked his life breaking into the mansions of the shogun's vassals. Makino, who called Chobei "my hero," admired his manliness and chivalry. In the Japanese community, where others concerned themselves with what people thought about them and went along with the mainstream, Makino intended to be "a nail that stuck out." Indifferent to whether he was accused of sentimental romantic "heroism" behind his back, he confronted everything head-on. Freed from the restraints of Japanese society, his innate independent spirit flourished in the Hawaiian milieu.

After spending the morning expounding his views to Haga, Makino made the rounds of the community in the afternoon. He diligently visited various government offices, the courthouse, city hall, and even the police department next door to the Hochi , and chatted casually with officials, lawyers, and policemen. Japanese immigrants usually addressed haoles as "Mr.," but Makino did not hesitate to call them by their first names. Using the English he had learned after arriving in Hawaii, Makino worked his way into haole society, and no other Japanese journalist was so quick to gather information. Wielding the Hochi as his weapon, Fred Makino was a disruptive presence, jabbing at the haole leaders, including the HSPA.

The first time Makino helped out his fellow Japanese was on the issue of picture brides. When they arrived in Honolulu, picture brides were forced to take part in a mass marriage ceremony as they were not allowed to leave the immigration office unless they had husbands. The Japanese immigrant community had long deplored this practice as inhumane. Makino mounted a movement to change the law so that ceremonies presided over by a Shinto priest or a Christian minister could be held after the women left the immigration office.

When six Japanese-language teachers had been refused entry by the Honolulu immigration office the year before Tsutsumi arrived, Makino had also brought suit under American law, winning a decision in their favor. He was also a central figure in efforts to obtain citizenship for Japanese who enlisted in the American military during World War I, and he was active in the Japanese-language school debate. His hiring of a haole lawyer, Joseph B. Lightfoot, was unprecedented in the Japanese community.

At some point Makino had hung out a shingle advertising the Makino Law Office. He counseled Japanese immigrants who had no idea where to seek advice in this unfamiliar foreign land on everything from putting up their wives and daughters as collateral for loans, leasing land, and illicit sake brewing to prostitution, divorce, and renunciation of adoption agreements. When people came to seek advice, Makino swiftly invited them into his office. To avoid embarrassing them, he did not allow anyone else in, even the staff of the Hochi^[*] . For legal problems, he referred them to his lawyer, Lightfoot, but took a fee for his intercession on their behalf. Since he had taken quickly to American-style give-and-take, he acquired a bad reputation as a petty shyster, some even calling him "Kinta the viper".

Makino's residence on the coast outside of Honolulu was an estate with a large Japanese-style garden, boasting a semicircular bridge and a rose garden, tended by his wife, Michie. Makino loved to fish. Whenever he was home he went on one of his fishing boats. The waters were shallow, and mahi mahi were plentiful. The Makinos had no children, but they were fond of their two German shepherds, Piko^[*] and Kuro. According to Yoshimi Mizuno, who worked as one of their live-in maids for many years, "Uncle" may have been known as an irascible old man at work, but he did not yell at his wife or his domestic help.

The Hochi finances were always tight, often making it uncertain when salaries could be paid. Many wondered how Makino was able to acquire his seaside mansion. A cloud of suspicion always followed him, but a clue to this mystery can be found in Foreign Ministry archival documents dealing with a lawsuit brought after the 1909 strike, when the HSPA used the local authorities to seize what were alleged to be secret union documents. The police had forced their way into Makino's drugstore without a search warrant, dynamited his safe, and carried off his account books and other items. When released from prison after serving his sentence for conviction on incitement charges, Makino sued the HSPA for unlawful seizure. Lightfoot was the only lawyer who was willing to take on this case against Hawaii's absolutely powerful HSPA. This was the beginning of the relationship between the two men.

Not wanting to stir up antagonism, the consul general pressed Makino not to aggravate the situation, but Makino refused to withdraw his charges. The HSPA, which complained that even the Japanese consul general could not control him, attacked him as a "Japanese anarchist" and called him "the worst element of Japanese."^[33] Makino had quickly contacted Kumano Yamaguchi, an Imperial Diet member, through his

eldest brother in Yokohama. During the contract labor days Yamaguchi had operated an immigration company and built up a political war chest with money wrung from the immigrants. When he heard about Makino's problem, Yamaguchi called for a formal official inquiry concerning the "illegal action inflicted upon a Japanese in Hawaii by the American authorities." He collected signatures from thirty-six Diet members, who protested the police seizure of Makino's records as an act of "brutality violating international goodwill" and contravening treaties between Japan and the United States.

The case became enough of an issue to require a secret report to Foreign Minister Jutaro^[*] Komura from Yasuya Uchida, the ambassador in Washington. Documents expressing concern about the case were also sent several times from the U.S. secretary of state to the governor of the territory of Hawaii. In 1915, six years after the so-called case of illegal search, a delegation of senators and representatives from Washington, D.C., was slated to make an observation trip to Hawaii. Makino seized the opportunity to distribute a document describing the details of the case to each of its members. When the HSPA learned of this, it moved to settle out of court, and the case rapidly headed for settlement. Makino had sought $50,000 as compensation. In an obituary written at the time of Makino's death, his half-brother, Seiichi Tsuchiya, wrote, "He received some compensation money, but the amount is unknown." A report from Consul General Hachiro^[*] Arita to Foreign Minister Takaaki Kato^[*] at the time of the settlement noted that Makino had received about $10,000.^[34]

It can be surmised that Makino, who had decided early on that Hawaii would be his permanent place of residence, invested the money in real estate. By the time he died Makino left pieces of land in various parts of Oahu besides his estate overlooking the ocean. It is unclear how much income Makino "the shyster" had accumulated, but according to Kumaiichi Kumazaki, the Hochi^[*] accountant for forty-six years, no matter how financially straitened the newspaper was, no funds from the Makino Law Office were routed to it.

The 1920 strike took place eight years after the founding of the Hawaii hochi^[*] . Along with the Nippu jiji it had become one of the two major Japanese-language newspapers in Honolulu. Compared to the Nippu jiji , however, its typeface was old-fashioned, and its readership smaller. On the plantations, however, the Hawaii hochi was much more popular than in Honolulu proper. Among the striking workers its influ-

ence probably was no less than that of the Nippu jiji . It was easier for the plantation workers to comprehend articles appealing to their emotions than those based on reason.

The Hochi^[*] had often criticized the federation for engaging in a "policy of secrecy." Its leadership shut out the Japanese-language newspaper that could most easily reach the workers, and they made no effort to consult its editor. Makino, who thought he had played a pivotal role in the 1909 strike, regarded himself as a Japanese community opinion leader, and from the start he intended to take a leadership position in the federation. When the federation was organized, the supporters' association had recommended him as a candidate for secretary general. But if a man with a past like Makino's were in a top post in the federation, it was obvious what the response of the HSPA would be. Tsutsumi and others quickly supported Seishi Masuda, who was popular with everyone.

Even so, Makino persisted in offering the benefit of his wisdom to the federation. When Governor McCarthy left for Washington to appeal to the federal government, Makino proposed that attorney Lightfoot be sent there as a federation director to state its case at the same time. He even suggested accompanying them himself, but the trip would require $5,000 in expenses. From the start the federation leadership did not know how to deal with Makino. The Oahu union was wary of Haga's attendance at federation meetings, for behind him loomed Makino.

In early March, when the federation was starting to worry about how to deal with scab workers, members of the U.S.-Japan relations committee arrived in Honolulu. This group, consisting of the president of the National Bank in New York, the president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and other business leaders, was stopping over in Honolulu on a goodwill mission to Tokyo with the goal of smoothing over tensions between the United States and Japan. Makino proposed showing these American business leaders the conditions in the Hawaiian sugar industry. The federation assented, but because the group was in port for such a short time, the opportunity was lost.

Makino was impatient with the federation. "They have solidarity and legality on their side, but they can't succeed in the strike with just those," he wrote in the March 5 issue of the Hochi . "The HSPA is just waiting for us to give up and split apart as the strike drags on. As time goes on, we will lose to those with money. There is no chance of winning unless

we resolve things quickly." He went on to say that he hoped "that putting someone in the Federation leadership merely because he knows English or has just graduated from school doesn't lead to defeat."

On March 10 Terasaki noted in his diary, "Somewhat chilly as the weather has not cleared up. Mr. Makino suggests attempting to mediate the strike." The next day he wrote, "Mr. Makino told Mr. Haga to suggest mediation by the acting governor." But Acting Governor Iaukea showed no interest because Governor McCarthy was to return on March 30. On March 18 he wrote, "Supporters' association holds its [regular] meeting, half of the members attend. [Illegible] discussed and decided on. Mr. Haga strikes Mr. Negoro."