The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-05-26
A JAPANESE PROTEST.

Honolulu, T. H. May %, 1905.
Editor Advertiser: l think that you
unfntentionally do great injustice to
the Japanese population of Hawaii in
your editorial this morning entitled
Arrest of Lawlessness.' You begin by
suggesting that the government of
Japan should try to do something to
restrain the turbulence and violence"
of it's subjects in these islands and
state that between sixty and seventy
thousand japanese here ARE making
themselves conspicuous and dangerous
by their INSTRUMENTATION, clamer,
puerile demands and paroxysms of
anger
Because a thousand or more Japa-
lnese on one plantation show signs of
violence during d strike, it is scarcely
fair to say that the sixty or seventy
thousand japanese in Hawaii are do
ing So After all / do not see that
there was much violence that can be
criticized at Lahaina, as compared
with the ordinary strike, whether
American or of any other nation. The
details of what shooting took place are
not yet known. but one thing is GER
tain and that is that none but Japa-
nese were hurt In view of the reck-
less shooting by police recently at Wal
pahu, perhaps it is possible that the
worst 1awlessness and violence were on
the part of police. 1t is we'll known
that japanese do not carry firearms,
and the fact that one Japanese was
killed and either two or three others
wounded while no police were struck,
is significant The violence that oc-
CURED in, for example, the Chicago
strike that is still unsettled, as shown
from day to day by your Associated
Press dispatches, is worse than any
thing the Japanese at Lahaina caused.
The immediate cause of the outbreak
at Lahaina was the beating of Jap
anese laborer by a luna,-a beating so
severe that the unfortunate laborer was
injured for life, having lost one eye as
a result OF the blows struck. Is 1t
unnatural that his fellowworkmen
showed sympathy and demanded that.
the man who so beat workman
under him be discharged?
Your comments such as the refer
ence to initiating "senseless raids and
to ''puerile demands" indicate an opin-
ion that the Japanese are disposed 10
strike for nothing at all. The fact IS
kthat behind a strike like that at La
Shaina, or like others which have re-
Gently occurred, there is always long
list of grievances which have been iS-
nored by managers who usually do not
take the trouble to understand them.
The management is surprised when
strike begins by a list of fifteen or
twenty demands and thinks they are
made up for the occasion. If he had
kept in touch with the difficulties OF
his men he would know that they are
the accumulation OF months, perhaps
years, of small troubles which need not
have existed if there was any way
for the laborers to make themselves
understood 1t is ridiculous to accuse
japanese, or any other people who are
sane of striking for nothing for d
strike means serious loss TO the
strikers At Lahaina, the desire or the
japanese for peace and their reilef at
the peaceful termination of the trouole
was shown when they gathered at the
plantation Office after the settlement
with shouts of ''Banzai." 1 firmly pc
lieve that if the manager of the plan
tation had been in reasonable COM
munication with his men so that theS
could understand him and he could uIl-
derstand them, the strike would never
have occurred
All Japanese deeply deplore the strike
and the japanese press is unanimous