The University of Hawaii at Hilo English Department is hosting a free public lecture by Yoshinori Kato about the early life of island businessman and labor martyr Katsu Goto at noon on Wednesday in the Mookini Library.
The University of Hawaii at Hilo English Department is hosting a free public lecture by Yoshinori Kato about the early life of island businessman and labor martyr Katsu Goto at noon on Wednesday in the Mookini Library.
Refreshments will be served.
Goto traveled to Hawaii in 1885 at the age of 23 to work as a contract laborer on a Hamakua sugar plantation. He later became a businessman and community leader in Honokaa where he fought for the rights of his fellow community members working as plantation laborers.
But his life came to a tragic end Oct. 29, 1889, when he was lynched and found hanging from a telephone pole in Honokaa town.
“Deciphering the Stone: Revealing the Footprints of Katsu Goto Through a Gravestone Inscription” is based on Kato’s translation of the inscription on Goto’s recently discovered gravestone in Goto’s hometown of Oiso, Japan.
Kato’s research might help explain Goto’s inspiration to help his fellow immigrants in Honokaa in 1889.
For more information, contact Patsy Iwasaki at piwasaki@hawaii.edu or call 932-7074.