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In Search Of A New Identity: Shiga Shigetaka's Recommendations For Japanese In Hawai'i, Masako Gavin

Masako Gavin

Extract: After the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), over-population and unemployment became pressing issues in Japan. Many intellectuals were concerned about the social and economic hardships caused by these problems and advocated solving them through emigration. The prominent journalist and a professor of geography at the Tokyo Senmon Gakkô (presently Waseda University), Shiga Shigetaka (1863-1927), believed Hawai’i was an ideal migration destination for the unemployed and impoverished Japanese.