The Hoover Institution Library & Archives is proud to announce open access to the full run of the Hawaii Hochi and its English-language counterpart, the Hawaii Herald, through the newly enhanced Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection. This milestone follows a collaborative effort with the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Hamilton Library and Hawaii Hochi Ltd.’s parent company, Shizuoka Shinbun.
Founded in 1912 by civil rights advocate Frederick Kinzaburō Makino, the Hawaii Hochi chronicled over a century of Japanese Hawaiian life. As a steadfast voice for migrant workers and a vital thread in Hawai'i's ethnic press, the paper reflected and shaped the cultural, political, and economic currents connecting Japan, Hawai‘i, and the broader Pacific. Its final issue on December 7, 2023, marked the end of an era in Japanese-language print journalism.
Now fully digitized and searchable, this collection provides a window into the history of the Japanese diaspora, transpacific migration, and the evolution of civil liberties and community identity in Hawai‘i. It stands as a record of freedom of the press and expression across generations.
The improved Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection features advanced navigation, filtering, and visual tools, enabling deeper exploration of historical Japanese-language newspapers. As part of Hoover’s broader mission to preserve, describe, and make available the most important library material and archival collections on war, revolution, and peace, this project fosters scholarship rooted in pluralism, memory, and democratic values.
“We invite scholars and the broad public to explore the Hawaii Hochi and Hawaii Herald archives, to benefit from the new Hoji Shinbun features, and to join us in examining the enduring legacies of freedom, migration, and community storytelling” says Kaoru (Kay) Ueda, a research fellow and the curator of the Japanese Diaspora Collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
