Fred Makino and Yasutaro Soga, editors of leading Japanese-language newspapers, exerted powerful opposing influences on Hawai'i's Japanese immigrant community in the early 20th century.
Makino, editor of the Hawaii Hochi, wielded his pen like a flashing sword. Soga, as editor of the Nippu Jiji, chose the path of gentle persuasion. Both were towering figures of courage and dedication in helping the Japanese community cope with the problems of assimilation.
Both Soga and Makino were jailed for leadership in the plantation strike of 1909. Makino remained unchanged afterward. Soga, whose wife had died while he was in prison, abandoned force in favor of diplomacy.
Makino was born in Yokohama in 1884 to a Japanese mother and a British father. He was a problem child. When Makino reached adulthood, he got into trouble in the red-light district, so he was sent to Hawai'i, where he got and quickly shed jobs as a plantation bookkeeper in Ka'u.
He fled to Honolulu, where he opened a drugstore and gave his customers immigration advice. He married 15-year-old Michiye Okamura from Kaua'i.
Soga was born in Tokyo in 1873. He studied English and British law, then switched to chemistry but had to stop because his eyes were too weak to read the small print of chemistry textbooks. He came to Hawai'i to make enough money to continue his education. His jobs on plantations brought him into contact with plantation workers, whom he tried to help.
Both Makino and Soga became interested in newspapering, and both were leaders in the 1909 strike. After the strike, Makino was dissatisfied with Soga's paper, the Nippu Jiji, so he started the Hawaii Hochi in 1912. Both papers represented large segments of local Japanese opinion.
They took opposite sides on the law that all but closed Japanese-language schools in the 1920s. Makino fought it until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. Soga was shipped to detention camp during World War II. There, he wrote poems and forgave his captors.
Makino died in 1953, Soga in 1957.
