Fun fact: The reason why Japanese living in Hawaii were not interned--despite being even closer to American military installations than Japanese Americans on the mainland--is that Japanese immigrants played a major role in the economy in Hawaii, owning a lion share of the businesses in Hawaii, like grocery stores, restaurants, hardware stores and the like. A professional class was also beginning to emerge. Military leaders predicted that the economy would collapse without the Japanese, who weren't really a threat anyway (just as they weren't a threat on the Mainland) so they did not carry out internment on the Japanese in Hawaii. Another fun fact: those colorful Hawaiian shirts were created by Japanese immigrants who used Kimono designs and printing techniques to make short-sleeve, button-down shirts that could be sold to mostly white tourists. It was basically good marketing more than anything else.
The Japanese in Hawaii around the time of WWII made up about 33-35% of the general population where it's less than 15% now. It would be like California in 2024 cordoning off the population of LA and Orange counties.
@@thekenthouse6428 Numerically the Japanese population was still relatively small. They could have still done it (incarcerated them) if they had wanted to, but they didn't because the impact to the economy would have been devastating. My sense is that it would have been still been unfeasible if the Japanese pop had been half of what it was by proportion, or 15%, due to the high ownership of businesses and services. Come to think of it, those Pearl Harbor movie scenes of Hawaii were pretty whitewashed, given that the actual Japanese population was 33%. They made Hawaii look like Iowa.
Some were interned, my great-grandfather included. It depends on how influential they were in the community, and there was an internment camp (Honouliuli) on Oahu.
The Chinese plantation workers were the ones marrying the Hawaiian women because the Chinese was going to stay in Hawaii after finishing their work in the sugar plantations and not go back to China so I guess there weren't too many other ethnicities of women to marry and more of Hawaiian women. Japanese men from the sugar plantation, however, planned to go back to Japan to marry a Japanese woman (after their contract to work in the sugar plantation was over). Even today, Japan is a very much closed society with not many foreigners and not much interracial marriages that I see when I go to Japan. So today there are a LOT of mixed Hawaiian Chinese people but hardly any mixed Hawaiian Japanese people in Hawaii. This is what I've been told a long time ago when I asked this question of why there are a lot of Hawaiian Chinese people in Hawaii and rarely a Hawaiian Japanese person. I was born and lived all my life in Hawaii, by the way. 75 years old :-( .
I totally understand the history behind this. It's radically different from Korea's immigration to Hawaii. Koreans in Hawaii had an overarching Christian (mostly Protestant) faith becoming the main factor of settling in the first place. It's unusual that Koreans in Hawaii historically had conflicts with Japanese and Chinese Buddhists. You know, the "Koreans are crazy Christian" stereotypes? It happened since the early 20th century, apparently.
the reason why Chinese people intermarried more in America is because of the Page Act. It was written to stop "Chinese prostitutes" from coming over to the USA but was used to basically ban every Chinese woman from coming to the States. As such, most Chinese people married other nationalities or had families in China (even though they lived in the States, it gets complicated). "Pure" Chinese families were rare because of this and there wasn't a law of the same magnitude applied to other Asian groups. This can be supported by the fact that Punjabis, Koreans, and Filipinos of roughly the same period also didn't intermingle with other groups as much as early Chinese immigrants did
I knew Hawaii had alot of the other island people there. I just had never learned why or how. Very interesting. Thank you. And looking forward to watching everything you put out. It is awesome work and very informative!
It’s so cool that people are aware of Hawai’is Japanese culture I had no idea! Also I love how you actually put in so much effort into researching the history!!
Just a point of clarification, when people in Hawaiʻi use the word “Hawaiian” they typically are exclusively referring to the indigenous people (“Native Hawaiians”) and almost never an umbrella term for all residents. Someone or something from Hawaiʻi is usually referred to as “local”, so the term you may want to use for this topic in the future is “local Japanese”. I myself have some Japanese ancestry (my great-grandparents arrived as plantation workers from Kumamoto), but no indigenous ancestry. However, some of my extended family members who do have indigenous ancestry could accurately be described as “Hawaiian-Japanese”. It’s very uncommon for people in Hawaiʻi to speak Japanese natively anymore outside of the older generation (most surviving nisei (二世) who would have spoken it at home as children are in their 80s and 90s now), but more people all over Hawaiʻi are starting to learn Japanese as a business language because of the sheer volume of tourists from Japan that visit. However, the most common language besides English spoken in Hawaiʻi is Hawaiian Creole (commonly known as “Pidgin”), which is an English-based creole heavily influenced by the Hawaiian language as well as taking features from the many other languages common among plantation laborers including Japanese. Most Japanese features of Pidgin are specifically from the Hiroshima dialect, as Western Japan was the largest source of immigrants. Okinawan has actually survived as a distinct identity in Hawaiʻi, and it’s still very common for people not to identify as Japanese unless they have also have Japanese ancestry. My grandfather told me that the idea of being grouped together with Okinawans would have been laughable even during his time, nearly 50 years after the Ryukyu Kingdom was incorporated into Japan. There is more interaction between the two communities today, but they are still very much distinct.
It should be noted that census data in Hawai’i categorizes those of mixed background separately, and that there are a large number of people in Hawaiʻi with mixed ancestry (including myself). The 2000 census recorded 16.7% of respondants as Japanese, but you were to consider anyone who has at least some Japanese ancestry and that may have recorded something else, that number will increase dramatically.
Most of the Hawaiian locals that I’ve met have been mixed race, so this tracks. Usually a mix of Polynesian (most likely Hawaiian native) Asian (Filipino, Chinese or Japanese) and White. So as the generations have progressed ethnic groups have been marrying into each other. So I think in the future the “Japanese Hawaiian” identity might not be as prominent as it used to be. But that’s what’s so interesting and cool about Hawaii, how much of a mix of cultures it is.
@@FreeBirdJPYT One of the criticisms of how ethnic census data is counted for Hawaiʻi in particular is its zero-sum nature. Each respondant in most cases is only able to choose one option so the percentages will always total 100% when that is often not sufficient to describe their self-identification. Someone possessing ancestry from one or more groups may pick the “two or more/multiracial” category rather than any one of the constituent groups, which will invariably give an inaccurate count of all people with at least some ancestry. There are of course some exceptions. For example, there are very few indigenous Hawaiians (Kānaka Maoli) with completely pure ancestry, and because of a general rejection of blood quantum requirements by the community (the only admission requirement based on ancestry for Kamehameha Schools, a private K-12 school system which almost exclusively enrolls indigenous Hawaiian students, is having at least one verified indigenous ancestor), they are more likely to identify with that group than as mixed. There are other nuances that the census fails to take into account, such as with both Chinese and Hawaiian ancestry. A large number of those with indigenous ancestry also possess Chinese ancestry because of a historical trend of mixed unions, and it is still very common for Indigenous Hawaiians to have Chinese surnames (Wong, Chun, Chow, Choy, Lam, etc.). The 2010 census recorded around 156000 respondants as Hawaiian Native and 55000 as Chinese. However, it has been estimated that the actual number of all people with both of these ancestries could easily exceed 1/3 of the entire population of Hawaiʻi.
That actually would be pretty interesting, there have been a bunch of other people that have been kidnapped by North Korea, so it might be interesting to do a dive on all of them
I think it'd be very cool if you made about Zainichi Koreans/Ainu/Okinawans i guess a video about the Non ethnic Japanese people and there relationship with the rest of japan
I wouldn't mind you to make a video on CIA's involvements in Japanese elections. From New York Times' 09 Oct 1994 article: C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50's and 60's
Polynesia is a geographical region, not a country. And also, I hate to break it to you, but America has other territories in Polynesia, like American Samoa. Also, I never claimed Hawaii, President Eisenhower claimed Hawaii in the 1950s, so I don’t blame me.
and majority of you are by blood and Genes SOUTH EAST ASIAN . You are NOT your own race . :) not unless your ancestor was part of the slave trade. but Polynesian people are SOTH EAST ASIANS .
@@FreeBirdJPYTTypical Western Imperialist remark. It's ingrained into you guys. It's not your fault. Just because verbally addressed Indigenous Polynesian sovereignty was overruled by the US gov doesn't mean the natives didn't feel a sense of identity and ownership of these islands -- written or otherwise. I think that's what he/she was implying.
@@zhc2200 all I did was state the facts that Hawaii is both in Polynesia and in the US. No matter what you believe, Hawaii is LEGALLY part of America for all intents and purposes. If you disagree and think Hawaii should be independent, that’s ok I have no issue with that. For example, I think Tibet should be independent, but it is legally part of China so I will address it as such. So stop with your buzzwords, calling me a “western imperialist.” Multiple things can be true at the same time.
@@Konmonachi you could have just said they were right instead of being sensitive and making a backwards ass argument to continue writing it wrong. no one said you were dumb for calling it hawaii
Fun fact: The reason why Japanese living in Hawaii were not interned--despite being even closer to American military installations than Japanese Americans on the mainland--is that Japanese immigrants played a major role in the economy in Hawaii, owning a lion share of the businesses in Hawaii, like grocery stores, restaurants, hardware stores and the like. A professional class was also beginning to emerge. Military leaders predicted that the economy would collapse without the Japanese, who weren't really a threat anyway (just as they weren't a threat on the Mainland) so they did not carry out internment on the Japanese in Hawaii.
Another fun fact: those colorful Hawaiian shirts were created by Japanese immigrants who used Kimono designs and printing techniques to make short-sleeve, button-down shirts that could be sold to mostly white tourists. It was basically good marketing more than anything else.
www.nps.gov/hono/learn/historyculture/index.htm#:~:text=Hawaii's%20Plantation%20Village.-,Honouliuli%20Internment%20Camp,the%20attacks%20on%20Pearl%20Harbor.
The Japanese in Hawaii around the time of WWII made up about 33-35% of the general population where it's less than 15% now. It would be like California in 2024 cordoning off the population of LA and Orange counties.
@@thekenthouse6428 Numerically the Japanese population was still relatively small. They could have still done it (incarcerated them) if they had wanted to, but they didn't because the impact to the economy would have been devastating. My sense is that it would have been still been unfeasible if the Japanese pop had been half of what it was by proportion, or 15%, due to the high ownership of businesses and services.
Come to think of it, those Pearl Harbor movie scenes of Hawaii were pretty whitewashed, given that the actual Japanese population was 33%. They made Hawaii look like Iowa.
Some were interned, my great-grandfather included. It depends on how influential they were in the community, and there was an internment camp (Honouliuli) on Oahu.
@@matthewl6700 I did not know that. I'll look that up. So many nuances in history. Thank you for letting me know.
The Chinese plantation workers were the ones marrying the Hawaiian women because the Chinese was going to stay in Hawaii after finishing their work in the sugar plantations and not go back to China so I guess there weren't too many other ethnicities of women to marry and more of Hawaiian women. Japanese men from the sugar plantation, however, planned to go back to Japan to marry a Japanese woman (after their contract to work in the sugar plantation was over). Even today, Japan is a very much closed society with not many foreigners and not much interracial marriages that I see when I go to Japan. So today there are a LOT of mixed Hawaiian Chinese people but hardly any mixed Hawaiian Japanese people in Hawaii. This is what I've been told a long time ago when I asked this question of why there are a lot of Hawaiian Chinese people in Hawaii and rarely a Hawaiian Japanese person. I was born and lived all my life in Hawaii, by the way. 75 years old :-( .
Ok sure, let me spend $2K on a ticket from California to Hawaii for the sake of a 12 minute video, that’s totally practical.
@@FreeBirdJPYT I was wondering what your comment meant. Care to explain?
I totally understand the history behind this. It's radically different from Korea's immigration to Hawaii. Koreans in Hawaii had an overarching Christian (mostly Protestant) faith becoming the main factor of settling in the first place.
It's unusual that Koreans in Hawaii historically had conflicts with Japanese and Chinese Buddhists. You know, the "Koreans are crazy Christian" stereotypes? It happened since the early 20th century, apparently.
👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻Don't be so sensitive
the reason why Chinese people intermarried more in America is because of the Page Act. It was written to stop "Chinese prostitutes" from coming over to the USA but was used to basically ban every Chinese woman from coming to the States. As such, most Chinese people married other nationalities or had families in China (even though they lived in the States, it gets complicated). "Pure" Chinese families were rare because of this and there wasn't a law of the same magnitude applied to other Asian groups. This can be supported by the fact that Punjabis, Koreans, and Filipinos of roughly the same period also didn't intermingle with other groups as much as early Chinese immigrants did
I knew Hawaii had alot of the other island people there. I just had never learned why or how. Very interesting. Thank you.
And looking forward to watching everything you put out. It is awesome work and very informative!
Fun fact, Hawaii is the only US state with a majority Asian population.
Plurality Asian. Not majority.
@@teehee4096 It's not an election. lol The largest ethnic group in Hawaii is Asian. That's what I meant.
Asia should have taken Hawaii and not the US with poor republicans and government.
@@SomeGuyWho.. No country in Asia was in the position to really make that happen at the time, unfortunately.
It’s so cool that people are aware of Hawai’is Japanese culture I had no idea! Also I love how you actually put in so much effort into researching the history!!
Just a point of clarification, when people in Hawaiʻi use the word “Hawaiian” they typically are exclusively referring to the indigenous people (“Native Hawaiians”) and almost never an umbrella term for all residents. Someone or something from Hawaiʻi is usually referred to as “local”, so the term you may want to use for this topic in the future is “local Japanese”. I myself have some Japanese ancestry (my great-grandparents arrived as plantation workers from Kumamoto), but no indigenous ancestry. However, some of my extended family members who do have indigenous ancestry could accurately be described as “Hawaiian-Japanese”.
It’s very uncommon for people in Hawaiʻi to speak Japanese natively anymore outside of the older generation (most surviving nisei (二世) who would have spoken it at home as children are in their 80s and 90s now), but more people all over Hawaiʻi are starting to learn Japanese as a business language because of the sheer volume of tourists from Japan that visit. However, the most common language besides English spoken in Hawaiʻi is Hawaiian Creole (commonly known as “Pidgin”), which is an English-based creole heavily influenced by the Hawaiian language as well as taking features from the many other languages common among plantation laborers including Japanese. Most Japanese features of Pidgin are specifically from the Hiroshima dialect, as Western Japan was the largest source of immigrants.
Okinawan has actually survived as a distinct identity in Hawaiʻi, and it’s still very common for people not to identify as Japanese unless they have also have Japanese ancestry. My grandfather told me that the idea of being grouped together with Okinawans would have been laughable even during his time, nearly 50 years after the Ryukyu Kingdom was incorporated into Japan. There is more interaction between the two communities today, but they are still very much distinct.
you had a perfect situation to say "how hawaii became so kawaii" and you missed it
Props on pronouncing Kamehameha correctly!
And every Hawaiian is laughing. It's not Ka-may-ha-may-ha like he said.
philippines mentioned! your videos are so great i dont know how you dont have more subscribers
Wow, I subscribed like literally 2 hours ago while you were at like 890 subs and you've already passed 1000. Great to see you growing.
because Hawaii thinks Japan is Kawaii
💀💀
King Kamehameha sounds like a very powerful person who has the ability discharge wave of power!
My dad said in the 1980's Japanese were 30% of the population of Hawaii and in 1941 the Japanese population of Hawaii was as high as 45%-50%.
It should be noted that census data in Hawai’i categorizes those of mixed background separately, and that there are a large number of people in Hawaiʻi with mixed ancestry (including myself). The 2000 census recorded 16.7% of respondants as Japanese, but you were to consider anyone who has at least some Japanese ancestry and that may have recorded something else, that number will increase dramatically.
Most of the Hawaiian locals that I’ve met have been mixed race, so this tracks. Usually a mix of Polynesian (most likely Hawaiian native) Asian (Filipino, Chinese or Japanese) and White. So as the generations have progressed ethnic groups have been marrying into each other. So I think in the future the “Japanese Hawaiian” identity might not be as prominent as it used to be.
But that’s what’s so interesting and cool about Hawaii, how much of a mix of cultures it is.
@@FreeBirdJPYT One of the criticisms of how ethnic census data is counted for Hawaiʻi in particular is its zero-sum nature. Each respondant in most cases is only able to choose one option so the percentages will always total 100% when that is often not sufficient to describe their self-identification. Someone possessing ancestry from one or more groups may pick the “two or more/multiracial” category rather than any one of the constituent groups, which will invariably give an inaccurate count of all people with at least some ancestry. There are of course some exceptions. For example, there are very few indigenous Hawaiians (Kānaka Maoli) with completely pure ancestry, and because of a general rejection of blood quantum requirements by the community (the only admission requirement based on ancestry for Kamehameha Schools, a private K-12 school system which almost exclusively enrolls indigenous Hawaiian students, is having at least one verified indigenous ancestor), they are more likely to identify with that group than as mixed.
There are other nuances that the census fails to take into account, such as with both Chinese and Hawaiian ancestry. A large number of those with indigenous ancestry also possess Chinese ancestry because of a historical trend of mixed unions, and it is still very common for Indigenous Hawaiians to have Chinese surnames (Wong, Chun, Chow, Choy, Lam, etc.). The 2010 census recorded around 156000 respondants as Hawaiian Native and 55000 as Chinese. However, it has been estimated that the actual number of all people with both of these ancestries could easily exceed 1/3 of the entire population of Hawaiʻi.
Fun fact the first aloha shirts are believed to have been made from worn out kimonos, brought from Japan by the immigrants.
I am from Crockett, California..it is the C in C&H Sugar
If you’re not against a dark topic, I’d like to suggest making a video about Megumi Yokota
That actually would be pretty interesting, there have been a bunch of other people that have been kidnapped by North Korea, so it might be interesting to do a dive on all of them
Very interesting!! Tbh i didn't even know this since i don't know shit about Hawaii
I was getting in the mood for some history lessons and then I heard kamehameha 😂
Im from Ohio and I've been to both Hawaii and Asia. Hawaii feel like an Asian country.
As a filipino why you apologize I'm curious in Japanese culture and history that is why I subcribe.
I think it'd be very cool if you made about Zainichi Koreans/Ainu/Okinawans i guess a video about the Non ethnic Japanese people and there relationship with the rest of japan
Is there where the Kamehameha move name came from?
Now do why Okinawa is so American
@@caslloveer that actually sounds like a great video idea
@@FreeBirdJPYT loool thanks
but this is just a theory..... a syphilis theory
Hawaii rhymes with kawaii, i think they may just like the kawaii
I wouldn't mind you to make a video on CIA's involvements in Japanese elections.
From New York Times' 09 Oct 1994 article: C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50's and 60's
That sounds like an interesting idea that might be worth going into
What about mr Masenko, or mr special Beam Canon ?
8 hour gang 👊
not only japanese but chinese as well silly!
👍
Its called IMMIGRATION!
Hawaii is Polynesia not American no matter what anyone says. It's Polynesia that you Americans claimed as yours
Polynesia is a geographical region, not a country. And also, I hate to break it to you, but America has other territories in Polynesia, like American Samoa. Also, I never claimed Hawaii, President Eisenhower claimed Hawaii in the 1950s, so I don’t blame me.
and majority of you are by blood and Genes SOUTH EAST ASIAN . You are NOT your own race . :) not unless your ancestor was part of the slave trade. but Polynesian people are SOTH EAST ASIANS .
It’s literally a state 😂 yall should be thankful 🙏
@@FreeBirdJPYTTypical Western Imperialist remark. It's ingrained into you guys. It's not your fault. Just because verbally addressed Indigenous Polynesian sovereignty was overruled by the US gov doesn't mean the natives didn't feel a sense of identity and ownership of these islands -- written or otherwise.
I think that's what he/she was implying.
@@zhc2200 all I did was state the facts that Hawaii is both in Polynesia and in the US. No matter what you believe, Hawaii is LEGALLY part of America for all intents and purposes. If you disagree and think Hawaii should be independent, that’s ok I have no issue with that.
For example, I think Tibet should be independent, but it is legally part of China so I will address it as such. So stop with your buzzwords, calling me a “western imperialist.”
Multiple things can be true at the same time.
This is Hawaiʻi*
@@matthewl6700 i mean most say Hawaii because we don’t speak Hawaiian, are we going to say japan as Nihon or Nippon when speaking English?
It’s romanized hawaii is just as acceptable
@@keptleroymg6877 You don't Romanize something that's already in Roman letters.
@@Konmonachi you could have just said they were right instead of being sensitive and making a backwards ass argument to continue writing it wrong. no one said you were dumb for calling it hawaii
Americans are European...
Phone a friend.
What