Chuo Gakuin Japanese Language School

Before the war, most Japanese children went to "Japanese School" on weekends. They'd learn language and culture and Japanese history. As you can guess, the older the children became, the less enthusiastic they were about spending weekend mornings in school. As you'll read later on in the blog, the Japanese Schools were virtually closed down during the war, and after the war, the push among the Japanese was to be "American" so these schools declined in popularity.

This story takes place at the Chuo Gakuin Japanese Language School. It was on the corner of Nuuanu and Vineyard Boulevard. (Again, for those not familiar with Honolulu, go to an online map to see how close this is to downtown. In fact, if you see the Foster Botanical Garden on the map, Chuo Gakuen was on the opposite corner. It was on the "Waikiki side" of Nuuanu.)

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Chiye “Carol” Itagaki, was attending Chuo Gakuen Japanese Language School. She was eleven-year old. In an interview with the Honolulu Advertiser sixty years later, she recalls that morning.

"Classes were held in a two-story wooden structure with wide stairways. I clearly remember singing the song 'Ame, Ame, Furi Furi,' when suddenly there was a loud noise. My teacher told us that there wasn't anything to worry about and to keep on singing. A few minutes later, a second 'boom' sounded and right after that, a third struck our building.

“The auditorium shook. Debris was flying all over, and the children screaming. We all frantically trampled down the wide stairway like a herd of cattle. Along the way going down, I witnessed children that were hurt badly. By this time, there were parents who came to pick up their children.”

(There was a boy who was hit by shrapnel on the playground. His hand was amputated.)

"Without a moment to lose, I ran as fast as I could headed for home. Breathlessly I told my family what had happened. Quickly we turned the radio on, and then and there we realized what was going on."


Some of the teachers at Chou Gakuin sent their pupils home, others gathered them together in a second-floor classroom. I assume their logic was that the children were safer at school than running around Honolulu during an attack.

David Arakaki was one of the children who ran home. When he got home, he realized his sister was still at school. His didn't know his sister, Nancy Masako Arakaki (age 8), was hit by shrapnel. She died before reaching the hospital.

Nancy's death wasn't the only tragedy that the Arakaki family suffered. In May 1941, Nancy's father Charlie Qiyu Arakaki took her sister Alice and brother Henry to Japan. It was common for Japanese families to send their children to Japan to further their education if they could afford it. Mr. Arakaki had a successful trucking business that allowed him to do that and to stay in Japan for a month until his second daughter, June, arrived.

When the war broke out between Japan and the United States, the three Arakaki children were trapped in Japan.

Mr. Arakaki was interned at Camp Honouliuli. His family was never told why he was arrested but they assumed that because his trucking business took him aboard military bases (to sell vegetables) and because he had children in Japan, the military suspected him of spying.

Charlie Arakaki lost his trucking business and wasn't released from internment until 1947. (Because of this late date, I wonder if Charlie Arakaki was sent to a mainland internment camp. But, I couldn't find anything to support that.)

In 1945, during a firebombing raid over Tokyo, Henry Arakaki was wounded and spent three months in the hospital. The three children didn't learn about their sister Nancy's death until they were returned to Hawaii in 1947.

I couldn't find any information about Mrs. Arakaki, who had one child killed, three stranded in Japan, and a husband interned.

In the list of Civilian Dead, Nancy is listed as: Nancy Masako Arakaki, age 8, (also listed as age 9). 1220 College Walk

PHOTO: Camp Honouliuli (HWRD)