Teaching Mikadoism: The Attack of Japanese Language Schools in Hawaii, California, and Washington, 1919-1927

Teaching Mikadoism: The Attack of Japanese Language Schools in Hawaii, California, and Washington, 1919-1927. By Noriko Asato. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006. xviii, 176 pp. $40.00, ISBN 0-8248-2898-4.)

The early-twentieth-century anti-Japanese movement in the United States is often identified with the Gentlemen's Agreement, alien land laws, and Japanese exclusion in 1924. The focus is usually on California, and a common assumption is that after the passage of its alien land law in 1920, the Japanese in that state were harassed only over minor issues. This study by Noriko Asato breaks new ground by showing the importance of Japanese language schools in the anti-Japanese movement. They were criticized for teaching Mikadoism, or loyalty to the Japanese emperor. Moreover, by using archival records and oral history interviews, she...