:Fred Kinzaburo Makino
{{short description|Territory of Hawaiʻi activist and newspaper publisher}}
Fred Kinzaburo Makino {{Nihongo|2=フレッド 金三郎 牧野}} (August 27, 1877 – February 17, 1953) was a Territory of Hawaiʻi newspaper publisher and community activist. He was the founder and first editor of the Hawaii Hochi, a Japanese-language newspaper for Japanese laborers. He advocated for workers rights, and led a strike in 1909. Makino also advocated against the regulation of Japanese-language schools.
Early life
Makino was born in Yokohama on August 27, 1877. He was the third son of a British trader named Joseph Higgenbotham and a Japanese woman named Kin Makino. Higgenbotham died of typhoid fever when Makino was young.
After Makino was involved in an incident in Yoshiwara, he was sent to Hawaii in 1899 to help his brother, Jo Makino, who owned a small store in Naalehu on the Big Island. Makino quickly moved on to working as a bookkeeper for the Kona Sugar Company until 1901, when he moved to Oahu and opened a drug store in Honolulu.{{Cite news|url=http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2010/11/29/fred-kinzaburo-makino/|title=Fred Kinzaburo Makino: A Biography—His Contributions to Society through the Hawaii Hochi - Part 1|work=Discover Nikkei|access-date=2018-11-30|language=en}} In 1903, after marrying his wife, Michie Okamura, he started an informal law practice for Japanese immigrants above his store. At the time, Japanese immigrants were not allowed to become lawyers, so he was able to fill a need within the community for legal assistance in Japanese.
1909 sugar strike
During the 1909 strike, one of the first large sugar plantation strikes in Hawaii, Makino founded the Zokyu Kisei Kai (Higher Wage Association) with Motoyuki Negoro and Yasutaro Soga, the editor of the Nippu Jiji. During the strike, they and two other strike leaders were jailed together for ten months and fined $300, though they only served four months. After he was released from prison, Makino returned to his drugstore to find that the Hawaii Sugar Plantation Association had stolen his account books while looking for union-related documents. He sued the HSPA with the assistance of lawyer Joseph B. Lightfoot, and settled out of court after the matter had become an international incident.{{Cite web|url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft9290090n&chunk.id=d0e2573&toc.id=d0e1676&brand=ucpress|title=The Japanese Conspiracy: the Oahu sugar strike of 1920|last=Duus|first=Masayo|date=1999|website=publishing.cdlib.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-30}}
==The Hawaii Hochi==
On December 7, 1912 Makino started the Hawaii Hochi as a Japanese-language newspaper for laborers. This was in response to Soga's changing attitude toward protests and resistance against the white plantation owners.{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Fred%20Kinzaburo%20Makino/|title=Fred Kinzaburo Makino {{!}} Densho Encyclopedia|website=encyclopedia.densho.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-30}} The two men–and the two newspapers–would often clash about local issues. Throughout his career, Makino and the Hawaii Hochi would support Japanese and Filipino workers during the Oahu sugar strike of 1920, advocate for American citizenship for Japanese soldiers who fought in World War I, and speak out against the territorial government's attempts to regulate Japanese-language schools.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/makingitinameric00bark|title=Making it in America: a sourcebook on eminent ethnic Americans|date=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|others=Barkan, Elliott Robert.|isbn=157607529X|location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|oclc=50174677|url-access=registration}} Because he disagreed with many Japanese American community leaders, like Takie Okumura and the Japanese Consulate General, Makino was seen as a controversial figure.{{Cite news|url=http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2010/12/13/fred-kinzaburo-makino/|title=Fred Kinzaburo Makino: A Biography—His Contributions to Society through the Hawaii Hochi - Part 3|work=Discover Nikkei|access-date=2018-11-30|language=en}}
In 1942, Makino temporarily renamed the Hawaii Hochi as the Hawaii Herald in order appear more American.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehawaiiherald.com/about/|title=The Hawaii Herald - Hawaii's Japanese American Journal|website=The Hawaii Herald|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-30}} This did not stop the newly-instated military government from temporarily shutting down the newspaper. Makino was interrogated by the FBI, but ultimately was not sent to the mainland and interned like his brother Seiichi Tsuchiya and other Japanese community leaders.{{Cite news|url=http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2010/12/20/3710/|title=Fred Kinzaburo Makino: A Biography—His Contributions to Society through the Hawaii Hochi - Part 4|work=Discover Nikkei|access-date=2018-11-30|language=en}}
Death and legacy
In 1949 Makino had a heart attack and grew steadily weaker until he died on February 17, 1953. When he became ill after the heart attack, he drew back from editing the Hochi, which in turn stopped advocating against social injustices.{{Cite news|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord/articles/v9n3/Hawaii%20Hochi%2045%20Years%20After.html|title=Hawaii Hochi, 45 Years After|date=August 16, 1956|work=Honolulu Record|access-date=November 29, 2018}}
The Hawaii Hochi is still being published in Japanese, and the Hawaii Herald is published in English.
References
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Further reading
- {{Cite book| title=牧野金三郎伝 |last=Makino Kinzaburo Den Hensan Iinkai |publisher=Makino Michie |year=1965 |location=Honolulu, Hawaii |trans-title=Life of Kinzaburo Makino}}
External links
- [https://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/home/LaborBios.html Biography] at the Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu
- [https://jcch.soutronglobal.net/Portal/Default/en-GB/RecordView/Index/6015 Seichi Tsuchiya & Fred Kinzaburo Makino archival collection] at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi
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Category:Japanese newspaper editors
Category:Trade unionists from Hawaii