Professor Morimoto’s Research on Kinmon Gakuen

In his recent book on the history of Japanese language schools in the United States and Hawaiʻi, Professor Toyotomi Morimoto examines how these schools functioned as enduring community institutions that sustained language, culture, and identity across periods of continuity and rupture. Drawing on detailed case studies, his work traces the role of Japanese language schools from the prewar era—when they served as central hubs for Japanese American community life—through wartime disruption and incarceration, and into the complex process of postwar reconstruction. Kinmon Gakuen is highlighted as a key example, illustrating how the school adapted to shifting political, social, and educational contexts while maintaining a commitment to “kodomo no tame ni” (for the sake of the children). Morimoto’s analysis situates Kinmon Gakuen within the broader history of heritage language education, underscoring its long-standing role in bridging generations and preserving cultural continuity within Japanese American communities.