[1] The paper gained prominence through its support of the territory-wide strikes of sugarcane plantation workers in 1909 and 1920, publishing sympathetic editorial columns and featuring extensive reports on the often slave-like living and working conditions of the, in many cases indentured, laborers.

In 1909, exploitative conditions on the plantations was at the top of the list, and under Yasutaro Soga's direction the Nippu Jiji became active in disseminating information related to the newly formed labor movement.

"[4] It was also a move to counteract widespread distrust of Japanese Americans, heightened by Japan's military successes in Russia and China, as well as the fact that the immigrant Issei and their children had by then become the islands' largest ethnic group.

Part of a larger movement to "Americanize" Hawaii's large and multi-ethnic immigrant population, the bill would have forced publishers to either expand at a tremendous cost increase or shrink their foreign language section to make room for the translations, and Soga editorialized against it.

[7] Some teachers and parents elected to push back and sued to repeal the restrictions; the Nippu Jiji, drifting away from the leftist stance it took during the sugar strikes, printed articles opposing litigation and urging the community instead to work with the politicians who had drafted the laws.

[1][2] Martial law was declared in Hawaii a few hours after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and Governor Joseph Poindexter conceded his authority to Commanding General Walter Short.

However, the military government soon discovered that without the Japanese newspapers they had no way of communicating with the many Issei who could not read English, and on January 9, 1942, the Nippu Jiji and its main pre-war rival, the Hawaii Hochi, were ordered to reopen and operate under Short's directives.