Library Exclusion and the Rise of Japanese Bookstores in Prewar Honolulu

Abstract

Research on the history of print culture and library service to immigrants in America has almost exclusively focused on European immigration to the East Coast. Such a narrative sidelines the experience of Asian Americans, among others. This article explores how the Library of Hawaii, which was the main public library in prewar Hawaiʻi, ignored the needs of Japanese immigrants at a time when they made up the largest ethnic group. In 1940, there were 157,905 Japanese Americans in Hawaiʻi, including the first generation Issei, many of whom had limited English proficiency, as well as the Hawaiʻi-born Nisei or second generation. Excluded from the public library, the Issei created their own rich print culture, including at least 41 stores selling Japanese-language books. This paper is based on archival sources and published reports to cover the Library’s history. In addition, the forgotten history of Japanese bookstores and reading in Honolulu will be brought to light by mining articles and advertisements that appeared inHonolulu’s Japanese American newspapers between the late 1800s and the beginning of WorldWar II, when Japanese bookselling came to an abrupt end. The paper makes advances in terms of research approaches for the study of immigrant print culture and also offers insight for librarians today to reflect on, when they consider the challenge of serving immigrants.