Katsu Goto

Katsu (or Jun) Goto (後藤濶) (née Kobayakawa) (1862–1889) was a Japanese merchant, interpreter, and lynching victim.[1] He was the leader of a fledgling Japanese community in Honokaa.

Early years

Goto was born in Kokufu-mura, Naka District, Kanagawa Prefecture. He was the eldest son of Izaemon Kobayakawa. He had three brothers and two sisters.[2] After receiving an education, Goto worked as a city employee at the Port of Yokohama. It was there that he learned the English language.[3]

Career

On February 8, 1885, he came to the Kingdom of Hawaii as a government contract laborer aboard the SS City of Tokio. He was part of the first shipload of Kanyaku Imin; 25 more shiploads arrived over the next decade.[4] Goto was contracted to a ʻŌʻōkala plantation that had been organized and managed by John Harris Soper prior to his 1884 appointment as marshal of the Hawaiian Kingdom.[2] After working for three years in the sugarcane fields, Goto took over a general merchandise store on the Big Island that had belonged to Bunichiro Onome.[5] Because of his English language fluency and his intolerance at seeing field workers being exploited, he often went to court in defense of the Japanese immigrant laborers.[6]

Unpopular with the plantation managers, Goto was caught and hanged by a group of six men: Joseph R. (JR) Mills, a local hotel and mercantile store owner; Walter Blabon a drayman; Thomas Steele a luna or overseer on Robert Overend's plantation; William Watson a drayman who worked for J. R. Mills; and John Richmond, Overend's stableman.[2] The sixth accomplice was a Hawaiian man named Lala, who fled the scene before the hanging.[2] The group ambushed Goto on his way from Overend's Plantation after he met with Japanese workers regarding conditions on Overend's Plantation, hog tied and he was hanged from a telephone pole in October 1889.[2]

After Deputy Sheriff Rufus Anderson Lyman informed Edward Griffin Hitchcock of Goto's murder in Honokaʻa, the suspects were caught. Charges were dropped against Lala and John Richmond for their cooperation with authorities,[2] while the others were tried and found guilty of manslaughter: Mills and Steele in the 2nd degree, to serve 9 years, and Blabon and Watson in the 3rd degree to serve four years.[7] Steele and Blabon escaped from prison to Australia and California respectively, Watson served out his time, and J. R. Mills was pardoned in 1894 after four years in prison[8] by the new government of Hawaii.[9]

Legacy

The episode became the subject matter of a 2001 play, Another Heaven.[10] At least two biographies about Goto have been written, Katsu Goto: the first immigrant from Japan (1988) by Fumiko Kaya,[11] and Hamakua Hero: a true plantation story (2010) by P. Y. Iwasaki.[12] In 2010, a memorial in celebration of the 125th anniversary of Goto's arrival to Hawaii was erected in Honokaʻa; the Memorial Service Committee was composed of several people, including a Hawaii State Senator, Hawaii State Representative, members of the University of Hawaii at Hilo campus, and the Hiroshima-Hawaii Sister State Committee.[13] The Katsu Goto Memorial Committee from Honokaa Hongwanji Mission produced a film in cooperation with Nippon Golden Network called Bringing the Legacy of Katsu Goto to Life about Goto's life and the humanities aspect of his story.[14]

See also

References
  1. Niiya, Brian (October 1993). Japanese American history: an A-to-Z reference from 1868 to the present. VNR AG. pp. 150–. ISBN 978-0-8160-2680-7. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
  2. Kubota, Gaylord C. (1996). "The Lynching of Katsu Goto". University of Hawai'i. Archived from the original on 9 June 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  3. "Katsu Goto 125th Year Anniversary Service Held". Hamakua Times. 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  4. Edwards Hunt, Tiffany (October 17, 2010). "Hawaii News — Remembering Katsu Goto: Historic Plantation Hero To Be Honored Saturday". Big Island Chronicle. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  5. Staff, Japanese-American National Museum (1993). Japanese American History: An A-to-Z Reference from 1868 to the Present. VNR AG. ISBN 978-0-8160-2680-7.
  6. Nakano, Jiro (1996). Kanda Home: biography of Shigefusa and Sue Kanda. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 44–. ISBN 978-0-8248-1812-8. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
  7. Hawaii State Archives, First Circuit Court; Court Case #430: The Crown vs J.R. Mills
  8. Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 5, 1895. c. 2, pg. 7
  9. Bob Dye; Gaylord C. Kubota (July 1996). "The Lynching of Katsu Goto". Hawaiʻi chronicles: island history from the pages of Honolulu magazine. University of Hawaiʻi Press. pp. 197–214. ISBN 978-0-8248-1829-6. Archived from the original on 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2011-12-14.
  10. John Berger (May 28, 2006). "Isle murder play has historical basis". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  11. Kaya, Fumiko (1988). Katsu Goto: the first immigrant from Japan. F. Kaya.
  12. Iwasaki, P. Y. (2010). Hamakua Hero: a true plantation story. Honolulu: Bess Press. ISBN 978-1-57306-321-0.
  13. "Honoka'a Town: The Katsu Goto Memorial". Honoka'a Business Association. Archived from the original on March 11, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  14. "Katsu Goto Movie". Katsu Goto Memorial Committee. Retrieved Dec 22, 2015.
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