was a Japanese bureaucrat and journalist. He started the ''Nippon Shuho (''日本週報'')'', the first Japanese-language newspaper in Hawaii.
Biography
Onome was born in
Miyagi Miyagi may refer to:
Places
* Miyagi Prefecture, one of the 47 major divisions of Japan
* Miyagi, Gunma, a village in Japan, merged into Maebashi in 2004
*Miyagi District, Miyagi, a district in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Other uses
* Miyagi (surna ...
, Japan in 1863. After graduating from high school, he moved to Tokyo, where he became a teacher at the Toyo English-Japanese school. In 1886, he became an interpreter and moved to Hawaii to work for the Immigration Bureau. The Immigration Bureau was a Japanese organization that existed to maintain good relations between
Japanese plantation workers and the
plantation owners
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
. When Onome arrived, he was disturbed by the huge pay disparity between Japanese laborers and the Immigration Bureau staff. The average male laborer earned $15 per month, while the Bureau's managers earned $200. It also didn't help that the head of the organization, Joji Nakayama, always sided with the plantation owners in exchange for extra compensation, earning $6,000 per year. Onome quickly resigned and returned to Japan in 1888.
Onome returned to Hawaii in 1892 and established the first Japanese newspaper in Hawaii, the ''Nippon Shuho,'' on June 3, 1892.
It was a weekly publication that helped workers stand up to the Immigration Bureau and plantation owners. The Bureau was embarrassed by the exposure of their corruption, but continued to operate at the number of immigrant laborers on private (rather than government) contracts increased. Many later Japanese newspapers also took up positions against the plantation owners.
However, the ''Nippon Shuho'' was a short-lived publication because Onome closed it in 1894, after he caught
beriberi
Thiamine deficiency is a medical condition of low levels of thiamine (Vitamin B1). A severe and chronic form is known as beriberi. The two main types in adults are wet beriberi and dry beriberi. Wet beriberi affects the cardiovascular system, r ...
. He moved to
Kea
The kea (; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the family Nestoridae found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wings ...
au on
Hawaii Island
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii ) is the largest island in the United States, located in the state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of , it has 63% of t ...
and started a
coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
S ...
farm that covered several hundred acres. He also owned a store in
Honokaa, but gave it to
Katsu Goto.
He fell ill again in 1905, and decided to return to Japan. He died in Tokyo on his way to Miyagi on December 12, 1906.
Further reading
*
References
1863 births
1906 deaths
Japanese journalists
People from Miyagi Prefecture
Immigrants to the Hawaiian Kingdom
People from the Territory of Hawaii
{{DEFAULTSORT:Onome, Bunichiro