The Fate of the Federation Leaders

News of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti was reported briefly in the Japanese-language newspapers in Hawaii. It is doubtful, however, that many in the Japanese community were interested in the fate of these two Italian immigrants. They were still savoring the success of the campaign against the foreign-language school law. A news story in the Hawaii hochi^[*] crowed, "Glorious victory in unprecedented suit against the foreign language school control act targeting the eradication of Japanese language schools. Banzai, Banzai, Banzai. Faith is heard in heaven, justice is ultimately victorious."

The decision against the territory of Hawaii was handed down five months before the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. The Supreme Court ruled that because "freedom of education" was guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, the territory had no right to meddle in the management of the Japanese-language schools as they were privately operated institutions. The outcome of the five-and-a-half-year suit ended in defeat for the territory of Hawaii. When the news arrived from Washington, Makino and others in the Hochi^[*] editorial room hugged each other and cried tears of joy. The Hochi hired an airplane to drop copies of its "Victory Extra" edition from the sky that day.

The "Victory Extra" chided the competition: "What will the Nippu jiji faction, who belittled the cause by refusing to contribute even five cents, say against the decision?" Makino finally had a chance to attack his rival paper, which always took a "reasonable" editorial stance. For Makino, victory on the Japanese-language school suit meant the defeat of his old enemy Yasutaro^[*] Soga^[*] , of the Nippu jiji , a central figure in the faction accepting control over the language schools.

The victory was also a victory for the Honganji sect in Hawaii, and a defeat for the Christians who did not support the suit. For five years

Hawaii's Japanese community had been deeply divided over the issue. Families were ostracized, and children taunted each other. Discord surrounding the Japanese-language schools furor continued for years, leaving a deep wound that the Japanese community found difficult to heal.

The Japanese-language school suit support association placed a full-page announcement in the Hawaii hochi^[*] , "We express our heartfelt feelings of respect and gratitude to the sincere efforts for the struggle shown over many years by the Hawaii hochi company." Kinzazaburo^[*] Makino, the troublemaker in Hawaii's Japanese community, had finally achieved the hero's status that he had not during the 1920 strike. Some, like Reverend Takie Okumura, who feared the decision would reverse the efforts of his Americanization movement, cautioned against excessive rejoicing in the Japanese community. The Japanese consul general warned, "I would hope that on this occasion care would be taken as to behavior so that the relations between the peoples of Japan and America that have deteriorated due to this issue will not further deteriorate." Makino completely ignored them.

For the next few months Makino toured the islands lecturing on the victory of the lawsuit. Everywhere he was applauded. Parents of children who attended the Japanese-language schools welcomed him as a champion who had fought for their rights. They adorned Makino with colorful flowered leis and shouted choruses of "Banzai" at his lectures at the Japanese-language schools. It stirred their patriotism all the more. For Makino, the lecture tour was also an opportunity to increase circulation of the Hawaii hochi: he sold company bonds to the Japanese-language school parents. When the Hochi^[*] victory commemorative issue was published a few years later, it alleged that the bonds took the form of donations to the Hochi for a "renewed show of gratitude to President Makino." According to Kiyoshi Okubo^[*] , Hilo bureau chief for the Hawaii hochi at the time, a more accurate description of the situation was that Makino ordered the staffs of local Hochi bureaus to make the rounds coercing purchasers into treating the bonds as donations to the company.

After the news of the victory came from Washington, Ichiji Goto^[*] , former secretary of the Federation of Japanese Labor and a defendant in the Sakamaki house dynamiting case, answered congratulatory telephone calls in the editorial department of the Hochi . In May 1926, one year after Tsutsumi and Hoshino returned to Japan, Goto and eleven other defendants were released early on good behavior. Tsunehiko Murakami,

named by two prosection witnesses as the man who had set and lit the fuse of the dynamite, was released one month after the others because of a violation while in prison.

Goto^[*] had been a reporter for the Nippu jiji before he became involved in the strike. After his release from prison, Yasutaro^[*] Soga^[*] refused to rehire him because of his prison record, but Makino told him, "If you feel like working, come on by." Although Makino was overbearing, he had a warm heart. Makino also hired George Wright, who had earned the even greater ire of the HSPA by helping the Filipinos' strike in 1924, when no one else would. He added an English-language page to the Hochi^[*] and put Wright in charge of it.

Like Goto none of the former federation leaders participated in the labor movement after release from prison. Neither did they speak much about the strike or about the trial to their families. Indeed, more than two-thirds of them were divorced while in prison. Unable to make a living while their husbands were in prison, some wives returned to Japan with their children. But since it was not difficult for women, fewer in number than men in the Japanese immigrant community, to find a new mate, others simply abandoned their husbands and divorced them. The powerful HSPA had sought to disarm the leaders of the Federation of Japanese Labor, who had stood up to them, by charging them with the Sakamaki house dynamiting, but it ruined their family lives as well.

Hiroshi Miyazawa, who along with Noboru Tsutsumi and Ichiji Goto was a secretary of the federation, was one of those divorced by his wife. As a man with a prison record, he could not return to his work as a pastor. Using his facility in English, he eked out a living as an interpreter and an agent.

The only two defendants able to resume their former occupations were Tsurunosuke Koyama and Chikao Ishida, both members of the Hawaii Island union. With the help of his wife, Teru, who had faithfully waited for him, Koyama made his business at Waiakea Plantation more successful than before. After World War II, Koyama returned to live in Miyazaki in the hometown of his second wife, whom he married after Teru's death. He died there at age seventy-four.

Ishida returned to his position as principal of a Japanese-language school at his former plantation on Hawaii, but his wife had returned to Japan with their son while he was in prison, then divorced him. His school backed the lawsuit, and he was active locally on its behalf. When Goto accompanied Makino on his victory tour of the island, Ishida, who led the welcome party, met Goto again for the first time since they

were in prison. The other defendant from Hawaii, Sazo^[*] Sato^[*] , died in a traffic accident shortly after his release.

Honji Fujitani had organized the first union on Oahu at Waialua Plantation, but his wife was evicted from plantation housing. She was able to survive somehow with four children, the oldest of whom was five. Fujitani could not return to the plantation after his release, so he worked at various jobs in Honolulu. Tokuji Baba, also from Waialua Plantation, went to work as a head clerk at a small inn in Honolulu.

The leaders from the Waipahu Plantation union, where trouble with scabs often occurred during the strike, could not return to their plantation. Kan'ichi Takizawa made his living by assisting a group that sponsored Japanese performing artists, such as storytellers, singers, and sumo wrestlers, and after World War II he returned to Japan. Unable to settle in his hometown, Nagano, he moved to Hokkaido, where he died. Fumio Kawamata, also from the Waipahu union, whom the prosecution accused of being a gigolo during the trial, was welcomed back by the woman innkeeper he had lived with before.

Shoshichiro^[*] Furusho^[*] , another defendant from Waipahu Plantation, left Hawaii in 1932, a year after the Manchurian incident, to return to his hometown in Kumamoto prefecture with his wife and children. Leaving work on the family fields to others, he opened an American-style supermarket in front of the railroad station, a venture that had great success. Furusho liked being involved in local politics. According to his granddaughter, he was always busy running around at election time, and he died at age sixty-five after World War II.

The fish farm run by Seigo Kondo^[*] , who had become involved with the security pickets while aiding evicted laborers in Pearl City, fell on hard times while in prison. He was married and had a daughter, but after a divorce he returned to his hometown in Niigata, where he ran a factory making ropes to tie barrels for the Kikkoman^[*] Shoyu^[*] (Kikkoman Soy Sauce) company. During election campaigns, he was so busy supporting local candidates that he spent hardly any time at home. Only Kondo and Furusho occasionally spoke of their involvement in "a strike that stunned the capitalists in Hawaii" during their later years. Kondo, like Furusho, known as a curmudgeon, died at age eighty-one.

Of the remaining defendants in the Sakamaki dynamiting case, Shunji Tomota of Waimanalo Plantation was listed in the Hawaii Nihonjin meibo (Hawaii Japanese Directory) three years after his release from prison as "Honolulu resident; odd jobs." In the same directory, Tsunehiko Murakami, released a month after the others, was listed as "Hono-

lulu resident; store owner." Their names do not appear in later directories, or in any other materials, and their subsequent lives remain unknown. Chuhei^[*] Hoshino's whereabouts after he returned to Japan with Tsutsumi remain unknown as well.

On May 23, 1930, eight months after the start of the worldwide depression triggered by the October crash of the New York stock market, a farewell party was held in Tokyo for U.S. Ambassador William R. Castle. Masanao Hanihara, the former Japanese ambassador to the United States, warned the departing Castle that the only way to restore amicable relations between Japan and the United States was to amend the Immigration Act of 1924. He continued to feel answerable for his statement that passage of the law would have "grave consequences."

Shortly after Hanihara's remarks were reported in Washington, Rep. Albert Johnson, the author of the act and still chairman of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, held a press conference. He announced that he wished to wipe away the hard feelings aroused between the United States and Japan by passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 and that he hoped in the near future to present an amendment that would permit a proportionate quota for immigrants from Japan. In effect, Johnson announced that he had reevaluated the law that he had pushed through Congress six years earlier, causing a major rift between the United States and Japan. The statement stunned congressmen.

Johnson was a representative from the state of Washington, where lumber was the main industry. As the depression spread, causing major social problems, the export of lumber to Japan took on increasing importance to the state. The Japan-America Society in Seattle, which had not been pleased by Johnson's role in the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act, encouraged lumber industry leaders interested in trade with Japan to put pressure on Representative Johnson to amend the law.

An old school conservative on the right wing of the Republican party, Johnson had fought a tough campaign to win his previous election. He foresaw that his next one would be even more difficult, and he needed to promise local leaders that he would propose an amendment to the 1924 Immigration Act at the right time. Given his previous position on the issue, however, he had to find an appropriate way to bring it to Congress again. Hanihara's plea to Castle had given him the chance to state his intention to do so. When Ambassador Castle bid farewell to Foreign Minister Shidehara on May 25, 1930, he said that since understanding

of the issue was gradually spreading throughout America, a satisfactory solution to the immigration issue was possible.

Two weeks later, on June 10, the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, which had strongly supported the importation of Chinese labor when Walter Dillingham had been its president, backed Johnson's proposal to amend the Immigration Act. It sent a telegram to President Herbert Hoover urging that Japanese immigrants be given a quota. Following the lead of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, other chambers quickly issued similar statements in Seattle, Tacoma, and other cities in Washington, as well as in Portland, Oregon. Even in California, the chambers of commerce in San Francisco and Los Angeles announced resolutions supporting the amendment.

The strength of American politics is the willingness to admit past mistakes and to learn from them. Many recognized the role that racial discrimination had played in passage of the Immigration Act six years earlier. The American Legion and the AFL both continued to view Japanese immigrants as a potential threat and firmly opposed any amendment, but by the summer of 1931, a year after Johnson's announcement, pressure to revise the law had reached the point that the Japanese embassy in Washington reported to Tokyo, "Most of the informed people in the U.S. are favorably disposed to the movement to amend the Immigration Act to give Japanese a 'quota.'"^[14]

Unfortunately, on September 18, two months later, the Kwantung Army launched its plans to occupy Manchuria, the three northeastern provinces of China, by blowing up a section of track on the South Manchurian Railway at Liutiaogou, just outside Mukden. Claiming that the explosion was the work of Chinese saboteurs, Japanese military forces made an all-out assault on the Mukden barracks and arsenal, the main fortification of the Chinese troops. In less than a day the Kwantung Army occupied Mukden, and within the next five months it gained control over most of Manchuria. The invasion, proclaiming a new phase of Japanese imperial aggression, killed any chance for the passage of an amendment to the Immigration Act of 1924. Those who had backed the amendment in the hope of improving U.S.-Japan relations would not support the actions of the Japanese militarists. The Manchurian incident was a turning point when a "sense of crisis toward Japan" spread from the West Coast to the rest of the country.

It could be said that the Manchurian incident also ended Representative Johnson's political career. In 1932, the year Japan recognized the

new "independent" state of Manchukuo and Japanese emigration to Manchuria was encouraged, Johnson lost his bid for reelection to a young, liberal Democratic candidate, ending a twenty-year career in Congress. Returning to work at his newspaper, Johnson energetically wrote pieces from his nationalistic perspective until he died thirty-six years later at the age of eighty-eight.