Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Soga, Yasutaro March 19, 1873 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com January 5, 2012, 3:48 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd. Territory of Hawaii, 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

YASUTARO SOGA, Editor and Publicist. The distinction of being the only 
Japanese member of The Associated Press of America is held by Yasutaro Soga, 
who has been editor and principal owner of the Nippu Jiji, Hawaii’s leading 
Japanese newspaper, for many years.
  Born on March 19, 1873, at Tokyo, to Kisaburo and Kura Soga, he received his 
education at the Tokyo Pharmacy school and the English Law institute. He came 
to Hawaii in March, 1896, and acted as clerk and manager of stores operated by 
C. Shiozawa at Waianae and Waipahu, Oahu, and Kaunakakai, Molokai, from 1896 
to 1899. He became assistant editor of the Hawaii Shimpo, Honolulu, in 1899, 
remaining until 1906, when he became editor of the Yamato Shinbun, the 
predecessor of the Nippu Jiji.
  He attended the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915 and also 
was present at the coronation of the present Emperor of Japan in the same year 
at Tokyo.
  In 1919 he inaugurated the present English section of the Nippu Jiji, the 
first move of its kind by any Japanese newspaper in the world. He attended the 
Washington conference on limitations of naval armaments in 1921, writing a 
series of articles on the sessions. He also toured the Orient in 1924, 
publishing a comprehensive resume of his impressions.
  As a result of the Japanese laborers’ strike on the sugar plantations of 
Oahu in 1909 and 1910, Mr. Soga was imprisoned with three other Japanese 
leaders on March 10, 1910, but was pardoned by Governor Walter F. Frear, on 
July 4 of the same year, when he returned to Japan for a six months’ visit.
  Mr. Soga has held many high civic positions, having been a member of the 
local boards for divisions one and two during the World War, a member of the 
executive committee of the Pan-Pacific Publicity council and member of the 
International Publicity committee of the Pan-Pacific Education Conference. He 
also is a member of the Fushiminomiya Kinen Shogakukai, the Honolulu Ad Club 
and Pan-Pacific Club.
  He married Sei Tanizawa in Japan and they have one son, Shigeo Soga, born in 
1905.

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