Title: "Editorial: Hawaii Facing New Problem," Seattle Times, 3/29/1926, (ddr-densho-56-401)
Densho ID: ddr-densho-56-401

HAWAII FACING NEW PROBLEM

Americans may experience difficulty in becoming exercised over anything happening in distant, gorgeous Hawaii, whose name is associated with poi, ukuleles, string guitars and a particularly haunting form of melody.

Something is happening there, however, which is sobering enough. Three-fourths of the Japanese school children, most of them born on the islands and potential American citizens, attend Japanese language schools for an hour daily.

This is no unimportant matter, such as, for instance, the attendance of foreign children in Japan at schools giving instruction in other than the language of that country. These represent only a fractional percentage of the total number of youngsters in the Oriental island.

In Hawaii, with a total school enrollment of 56,881, about 29,000 pupils are Japanese -- or, rather, are potential American citizens of Japanese parentage. Of these, 22,000 or 23,000 attend schools where they learn another language than English. The territory is interested in anything else they may learn. It is endeavoring to gain control of textbooks, so that it may prescribe what shall not be used in giving instruction to these boys and girls, Hawaii's citizens of tomorrow -- and all potential Americans.

For the present the problem may be Hawaii's alone. One may wonder how long it will remain Hawaii's -- alone.