The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo English Department host a public lecture by Dr. Yoshinori Kato on the early life of island businessman and labor martyr Katsu Goto on Wednesday, March 8 at noon in Kilohana: The Academic Success Center, located in the Mookini Library. Refreshments will be served.
Goto traveled to Hawaiʻi in 1885 at the age of 23 to work as a contract laborer on a Hāmākua sugar plantation. He later became a businessman and community leader in Honoka`a where he fought for the rights of his fellow community members working as plantation laborers. But his life came to a tragic end on October 29, 1889 when he was lynched and found hanging from a telephone pole in Honoka`a 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 and backed by several years of research. Kato’s translation provides new information, including Goto’s early transfer to Yokohama for his vocation and his possible involvement with democracy advocates influenced by the Meiji Restoration of 1868 that may help explain Goto’s background and inspiration to help his fellow immigrants in Honoka`a in 1889.
Kato, a resident of Oiso, earned a bachelor of engineering degree from Keio University in Tokyo, Japan and a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa.
The event is part of the UH Hilo English Department’s Brown Bag Series and presented with support by the Droste Foundation.
For more information, contact Patsy Iwasaki at piwasaki@hawaii.edu or call 932-7074. For disability accommodation, contact Disability Services at 932-7623 (V) or 932-7002 (TTY).