Language Communities in Japan (Ed)

John C. Maher
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/language-communities-in-japan-ed-john-c-maher/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Discourses of Identity. Language Learning, Teaching,

and Reclamation Perspectives in Japan Martin Mielick

https://ebookmass.com/product/discourses-of-identity-language-
learning-teaching-and-reclamation-perspectives-in-japan-martin-
mielick/

Discourses of Identity: Language Learning, Teaching,

and Reclamation Perspectives in Japan 1st Edition
Martin Mielick

https://ebookmass.com/product/discourses-of-identity-language-
learning-teaching-and-reclamation-perspectives-in-japan-1st-
edition-martin-mielick/

C Programming Language: C PROGRAMMING LANG _p2 2nd

Edition, (Ebook PDF)

https://ebookmass.com/product/c-programming-language-c-
programming-lang-_p2-2nd-edition-ebook-pdf/

Jinrikisha days in Japan Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore

https://ebookmass.com/product/jinrikisha-days-in-japan-eliza-
ruhamah-scidmore/
Amongst the Ruins: Why Civilizations Collapse and
Communities Disappear John Darlington

https://ebookmass.com/product/amongst-the-ruins-why-
civilizations-collapse-and-communities-disappear-john-darlington/

Amongst the Ruins: Why Civilizations Collapse and

Communities Disappear John Darlington

https://ebookmass.com/product/amongst-the-ruins-why-
civilizations-collapse-and-communities-disappear-john-
darlington-2/

Communities, Performance and Practice: Enacting

Communities Kerrie Schaefer

https://ebookmass.com/product/communities-performance-and-
practice-enacting-communities-kerrie-schaefer/

John Donne's Language of Disease Alison Bumke

https://ebookmass.com/product/john-donnes-language-of-disease-
alison-bumke/

Roosevelt's Boys John C. Horst

https://ebookmass.com/product/roosevelts-boys-john-c-horst/
Language Communities in Japan
Language Communities
in Japan

Edited by
JOHN C . M A H E R

3
 3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© editorial matter and organization John C. Maher 2022
© the chapters their several authors 2022
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021937349
ISBN 978-0-19-885661-0
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198856610.001.0001
Printed and bound in the UK by TJ Books Limited
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
 Contents

List of figures and tables viii

The contributors xi

Introduction: Tradition in motion 1

John C. Maher

I. NAT IONA L L A NG UAG ES

1. Japanese in the world: The diaspora communities 15
Kazuko Matsumoto
2. Japanese in Japan: The national language and regional
varieties 31
Junko Hibiya
3. Language communities of the Northern Ryukyus:
Okinawan, Amami, and Kunigami 43
Patrick Heinrich
4. Language communities of the Southern Ryukyus: Miyako,
Yaeyama, and Yonaguni 51
Sachiyo Fujita-Round
5. Japanese Sign Language: A language of the deaf community 59
Norie Oka
6. Ainu: An urban-rural indigenous language of the North 68
Hidetoshi Shiraishi

II . C OMMUN I T Y L A NG UAGES
7. Korean: Transnational links of language and culture 79
Hye-Gyeong Ohe
8. Chinese: A historic language of cultural influence 91
Jie Shi
9. Portuguese: Diaspora, ethnolinguistic vitality, and cultural
influence 99
Lucila Etsuko Gibo
vi contents

10. Spanish: From Renaissance missionaries to the Nikkeijin

community 109
Daniel Quintero
11. Urdu and Hindi: Languages of transnational history,
business, and culture 121
Rika Yamashita
12. Nepali: Outmigration and the evolving diaspora 129
Tina Shrestha
13. Vietnamese: From refugee community to cultural
transitions 138
Mayumi Adachi
14. Filipino: A nationwide migrant language and culture 147
Sachi Takahata
15. Burmese: Refugees and Little Yangon 156
Kosei Otsuka
16. Turkish, Kurdish, and Uyghur: Linguistic and political
presence from the Meiji period 164
John C. Maher
17. Persian: Migration waves and diversification 169
Hourieh Akbari

III. L ANG UAGE S OF C U LT U RE, POL I TICS , AND

MODE R N I Z AT ION
18. English: International language of work and education 179
Simon Cookson
19. Dutch and German: Mediator languages of science,
politics, and law 191
Florian Coulmas
20. French: Culture, linguistic landscape, and modernization 199
Simon Tuchais
21. Russian: A historic language community and Russian
language education 209
Petr Podalko
22. Esperanto: Internationalism, dialogue, and an evolving
community 217
Kimura Goro Christoph and Gotoo Hitosi
 contents vii

23. Latin and Sanskrit: Hidden Christians, Buddhism, and

religious scholarship 224
John C. Maher

References 234
Index 252
 List of figures and tables

Figures

1.1. Countries where Japanese emigrants settled together with estimated

populations of Japanese and Nikkei-jin 19
1.2. Map of the Japanese Empire (Japan’s first empire on the left; Japan’s second
empire on the right) 20
1.3. Number of Japanese citizens residing outside of Japan as permanent
or long-term residents in 2018 by region 26
1.4. Number of Japanese language learners abroad in 2015 by region 29
2.1. Dialect divisions of Japanese 33
2.2. Use of pronominal forms referring to oneself: overall result % (N=2,107) 39
2.3. Use of pronominal forms referring to oneself: overall result
(Male) % (N=999) 40
2.4. Use of pronominal forms referring to oneself: overall result
(Female) % (N=1,108) 40
2.5. Braille examples 42
4.1. Map of two districts in the Southern Ryukyu, Okinawa prefecture 53
5.1. Users of Japanese, JSL, and Manually Coded Japanese (MCJ) 62
6.1. Map of Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kurils 73
7.1. Change in the number of Korean residents in Japan 81
7.2. Estimated number of Korean travellers to Japan 83
7.3. Estimated number of foreign travellers to Japan 84
7.4. Korean language presence in public transportation in Japan 85
7.5. Shin Okubo Korea town 88
7.6. Change in number of high schools offering foreign language courses in Japan 90
9.1. Portuguese language flyer in Oizumi 103
9.2. Flyer for ‘Festa Junina’ in the Catholic Community of Ota 106
10.1. Japanese secondary education institutions’ language uptake since 1993 118
10.2. Foreign languages studied at national, public, and private universities 120
13.1. The population of Vietnamese residents in Japan 140
13.2. Self-evaluation of two language abilities 143
13.3. Language choice with Vietnamese conversation partner 144
13.4. Language use in each social domain 144
 list of figures and tables ix

13.5. Important language(s) for the future 145

14.1. Filipino population in Japan by major visa category (1998–2017) 149
14.2. Residential distribution of Filipinos in Japan (2017) 151
17.1. Number of Persian native speakers in Japan over 18 years 173
19.1. ‘The Japanese government pays ten guilders to bearer’. Legal tender issued
in Dutch by Japanese occupation of Dutch East Indies, 1940s. 194
20.1. Evolution of the number of schools teaching languages other than English
from 1993 to 2016 208

Tables

1.1. Number of Japanese settlers in Japanese colonial territories and spheres

of influence by year 22
1.2. The top 20 countries for Japanese permanent or long-term residents in 2018 27
1.3. Top ten prefectures for Japanese children who spent more than a year
abroad before returning to Japan in 2017 28
1.4. The top 20 countries in terms of the number of Japanese language learners
abroad in 2015 30
2.1. Common (standard) first-person pronominal forms 39
4.1. Word comparison among the Southern Ryukyuan languages 53
4.2. Tourist phrases in the Southern Ryukyuan languages 56
7.1. Vowels in Korean and Zainichi Chōsen-go 85
9.1. Prefectures with largest Brazilian populations 102
9.2. Cities with largest Brazilian populations 102
9.3. Brazilian schools in Japan run by MEC 107
10.1. Spanish-speaking immigrant population by country of origin
and prefectural residence 112
10.2. Percentages of masses in Spanish by prefecture 117
10.3. Percentages of masses in Spanish by prefecture according to the number
of registered Catholics 117
10.4. Spanish taught in private language schools and cultural centres by region
in Japan 119
13.1. The generations of the immigrants 143
14.1. Number of Catholic churches conducting masses in Filipino by parish 153
18.1. Foreign residents in Japan in 2017 from countries with English as an official
language 184
18.2. Tourists visiting Japan in 2018 from countries with English as an official
language 184
x list of figures and tables

18.3. JET assistant language teachers (ALTs) in 2018 from countries with English
as an official language 189
20.1. Number and percentage of books registered in the NACSIS-Cat catalogue
as of end of 2018 for main languages 202
20.2. Number and percentage of periodicals newly registered in the NACSIS-Cat
catalogue in 2018 for main languages 203
20.3. Number and percentage of books newly registered in the NACSIS-Cat
catalogue in 2018 for main languages 203
20.4. Languages other than English taught in Japanese junior high schools
as of May 2016 206
20.5. Main languages other than English taught in Japanese senior high schools
as of May 2016 207
21.1. Russian language instruction at Japanese universities 213
21.2. Russian language instruction at Japanese high schools 215
 The contributors

Mayumi Adachi is Assistant Professor at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures
of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. She is also Lecturer of Vietnamese
language at Showa Women’s University, Tokyo. She studied linguistics at International
Christian University. Her master’s degree from the University of Tokyo (UT) was on the
acquisition of Japanese as a second language by Vietnamese children. Her PhD from UT
dealt with Vietnamese pragmatics. She is the author of a monograph on demonstratives,
sentence-final particles, and interjections (Benseisha, 2021). Her current research interests
are sociolinguistics and Vietnamese immigrant communities in Japan.
Hourieh Akbari is a lecturer at Shirayuri Women’s University and a researcher at Chiba
University, Japan. She holds a master’s degree in Japanese language education from Tehran
University, Iran. Her PhD is from the School of Humanities and Social Science of Chiba
University. Her research interests are ritual communication and contact situations. In par-
ticular, she is investigating the problem of second language use by native Persian speakers
living in Japan.
Simon Cookson is Associate Professor in the College of Business Management at J. F. Ober-
lin University, Tokyo, Japan. He has an MEng. in aerospace systems engineering from the
University of Southampton and an MSc in teaching English to speakers of other languages
from Aston University and a PhD from International Christian University on communi-
cation breakdown in aviation contexts. His research interests include applied linguistics,
sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, and English for special purposes. He has
published numerous articles on aviation English and has co-authored several books, includ-
ing Ready for Departure, a textbook which prepares commercial pilots for the International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) English proficiency test in Japan.
Florian Coulmas is Senior Professor for Japanese Society and Sociolinguistics at the Uni-
versity of Duisburg-Essen. He was the Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies
in Tokyo from 2004 to 2014. He regularly writes for the Japan Times and The Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung. He is the author of numerous works on sociolinguistics with an empha-
sis on language regimes in Japan and on writing systems. He is editor of the International
Review of the Sociology of Language. In 2016, he was awarded the Meyer-Struckmann-Prize
for Research in Arts and Social Sciences.
Sachiyo Fujita-Round is Visiting Associate Professor at International Christian University,
Tokyo. She studied sociolinguistics at the universities of Lancaster and Hitotsubashi. Her
PhD from the International Christian University dealt with bilingualism and ethnography
of a JSL (Japanese as a second language) Korean child. Since 2012, she has been engaged
xii the contributors

in fieldwork in the Miyako Islands. Her latest paper is entitled ‘Bilingualism and bilin-
gual education in Japan’ in the Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics (edited by
P. Heinrich and Y. Ohara, 2019).
Lucila Etsuko Gibo is Associate Professor in the Department of Luso-Brazilian Studies at
Sophia University. She has a BA from the University of San Paolo, an MA, and a PhD in
linguistics from the University of the Ryukyus. Her research interests include grammar and
contact linguistics between Ryukyuan and Japanese as well as the Okinawan heritage lan-
guage and community in Brazil. She is a chapter contributor to several books including the
Português do Brasil para estrangeiros: polı́ticas, formação, descrição, ‘Uma análise do PLE
de aprendizes japoneses sob a perspectiva da teoria do contato linguı́stico’ (2018), and the
Dicionário Okinawano-Português (2016).
Gotoo Hitosi is Emeritus professor linguistics at Tohoku University. He specializes in
Romance linguistics, corpus linguistics, Esperanto studies, and the history of linguistics.
Patrick Heinrich is Professor of Japanese Linguistics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice,
where he is also Director of the PhD programme on Asian and North African Studies. He
has taught at universities in Germany, Japan, Italy, Sweden, Finland, France, and Austria. He
is co-editor of the Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages (de Gruyter, 2015) and of the Rout-
ledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics (Routledge, 2019). He has been the founding
general secretary of the Ryukyuan Heritage Language Society.
Junko Hibiya obtained her PhD in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. She was a
professor of linguistics at International Christian University specializing in sociolinguistics
(language variation) and was appointed president of the university in 2012. She is a member
of the Central Council for Education, and a member of the Science Council of Japan.
Kimura Goro Christoph is a professor in the Faculty of Foreign Studies, Sophia Univer-
sity. He specializes in sociolinguistics, especially the revival and revitalization of minority
languages, interlingual communication, and the social functions of second and foreign
languages.
John C. Maher is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at International Christian University,
Tokyo, specializing in sociolinguistics. He has held positions at the University of Edinburgh,
St Antony’s College, Oxford, and De La Salle University, Manila. His many publications
in both English and Japanese include Introducing Chomsky (Multilingual Matters, 1995),
Multilingualism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2017), and Metroethnicity, Naming and
Mocknolect: New Horizons in Japanese Sociolinguistics (John Benjamins, 2021). He is a
founding member of the Japan Association of the Sociolinguistic Sciences.
Kazuko Matsumoto is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Tokyo. Employing
the variationist sociolinguistic paradigm, she has investigated dialect contact and new di-
alect formation (e.g., Palauan Japanese as an obsoleting colonial koiné in postcolonial Palau
in the Pacific; Brazilian Portuguese as a newly emerging immigrant koiné in Japan; and Ko-
rean dialect contact and koinéization in Tokyo and Sakhalin, Russia). Her interests also
include contact linguistics, such as contact-induced borrowing in Palauan and Sakhalin
Russian, particularly food-related loanwords. She also studies the nativization of Palauan
English, and comparative analyses of matching features across Micronesian Englishes.
 the contributors xiii

Petr Podalko graduated from Novosibirsk State University in 1987 with an integrated MA
in history and Japanese language. He moved to Japan to conduct research on the cultural
history of Russian emigration to the Orient and became the first Russian native to obtain
both MA and PhD degrees in Japan, writing his thesis in Japanese (Osaka University). In
2004, he became a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, where he teaches
courses on history, comparative studies, language, and cultural studies. He is a member
of research teams and research societies in Russia and Japan.
Daniel Quintero teaches Spanish at International Christian University, Tokyo. He holds
degrees in Spanish, communication, and linguistics from the Universidad de Málaga and
the Universidad Antonio de Nebrija. His PhD from Kobe City University of Foreign Stud-
ies dealt with multilingualism, family trilingualism, and the Spanish-speaking community
in Japan. His research interests are sociolinguistics, language teaching methodology, and
intercultural communication.
Hye-Gyeong Ohe has been teaching Korean language and culture and has served as a pro-
gramme coordinator of world languages at International Christian University, Tokyo. She
has also investigated how to improve intercultural communicative competence in higher
education in the context of East Asia. Her academic work includes technology-enhanced
approaches to the development of intercultural sensitivity in a collaborative language pro-
gramme, ethnic education for Zainichi Koreans in the public schools as well as in Korean
schools in Japan, and discourse analysis employing a complex sociolinguistic framework.
Norie Oka teaches English to deaf students at Meisei Gakuen School for the Deaf in Tokyo.
She holds a BA in linguistics from the University of Tokyo, and an MPhil from the Uni-
versity of Cambridge. She received a PhD from Hitotsubashi University for her thesis titled
‘Japanese Sign Language: How a minority language without written forms survives a mod-
ern era’. She has published books on the structure of JSL, and her paper (co-authored) in
English from 2016 is ‘A Preliminary Study on Teaching Written Japanese to Deaf Chil-
dren’. Her research interests are bilingual deaf education, second language acquisition, and
language policy.
Kosei Otsuka teaches Burmese at Osaka University. He holds degrees in language and area
studies as well as literature from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Tokyo Uni-
versity. His doctoral work at Tokyo University unpacked the grammar of a Kuki-Chin
language, Tiddim Chin. His research interests include descriptive linguistics and method-
ologies for language teaching. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers
JP17H04523, JP18H03599, JP17K13442.
Jie Shi is Professor of English at the University of Electro-Communications (UEC), Tokyo,
and has been working as an educator and researcher in sociolinguistics, bilingualism and
multilingualism, cognitive education, English for Academic Purposes and English for Spe-
cific Purposes, and translation studies. She is the director of the ESP (English for Specific
Purposes) programme and the head of the Research Station for Innovative and Global
Tertiary English Education at UEC.
Hidetoshi Shiraishi teaches linguistics at Sapporo Gakuin University. He holds degrees in
Ainu phonology from the International Christian University and Chiba University. His
xiv the contributors

PhD from the University of Groningen dealt with the phonology of Nivkh, an indigenous
language in Northeast Asia. His research interests are the phonology of Nivkh and Ainu.
Tina Shrestha is Assistant Professor in the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS)
at Waseda University. She received her PhD in anthropology from Cornell University. She
is fluent in English and Nepali and has conducted fieldwork in Nepal and the Nepali di-
aspora in the United States and Malaysia. Her publications have appeared in Anthropology
of Work Review (2019), Pacific Affairs (2018), Studies in Nepali History and Society (2015,
2018, 2019), and Refugee Resettlement in the United States: Language, Pedagogy and Politics
(UK: Multilingual Matters, 2016). She is working on her monograph Surviving the Sanctuary
City: Ordinary suffering and asylum-seeking work among Nepali New Yorkers. Her current
research is on Nepali student-migration and diasporic cultural formation in Japan (awarded
JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists, 2019–2021).
Sachi Takahata is Professor in the School of International Relations, University of Shizuoka,
Japan. She completed her PhD in sociology at Osaka City University. Fluent in both English
and Filipino (Tagalog), she has conducted fieldwork on Filipino migrants in Japan since
the early 1990s. She has also investigated migration and settlement of other communities,
including ethnic Koreans and Brazilians. Aside from academic works, she has been active
as a court interpreter since 1993.
Simon Tuchais teaches French at the Faculty of Foreign Studies, Sophia University,
Tokyo. He holds degrees in French and Japanese from Université Paris IV Sorbonne,
INALCO (Paris), a master’s degree in Japanese linguistics from Tokyo University, and a PhD
in language sciences from École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) (Paris). His
PhD thesis was a contrastive linguistic study of expression of personal opinions in French
and Japanese. His current field of interest includes French and Japanese corpus linguistics,
especially applied to the study of discourse markers.
Rika Yamashita (PhD, University of Tokyo) is Associate Professor in English and linguis-
tics at the College of Economics, Kanto Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan. Rika has
a monograph on the sociolinguistic study of Japanese-Urdu bilingual pupils (in Japanese,
Hituzi Syobo, 2016), and an award-winning paper on Pakistani pupils’ codeswitching in
Japanese Journal of Language in Society (2014). As a sociolinguist and linguistic anthropol-
ogist, Rika is interested in bi/multilingual practices and ideologies. Apart from works in
Japanese, Rika has chapter contributions in Urban Sociolinguistics (with Patrick Heinrich,
Routledge, 2017) and the Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics (Routledge, 2019).
 Introduction
Tradition in motion
John C. Maher

Re-imagining past in the present

Language helps us know who we are. It is both social institution and epistemology.
Society is a set of complex realities inhabited by people with complex lives. It is
the place we live in. We want to make sense of it. Languages do this for us. They
are word-worlds that speak to the human condition, but they are experienced as
‘societal history’ (Weber’s Gesellschaftsgeschichte).
Languages are visible when we choose to see them. When we find them, they
can be a doorway to understanding the shared life of society. This social space
comprises a layering of individuals and groups, cultures, and languages. Whilst
the telos of multilingual society is well defined (Maher 2017), how it is conceived
in individual states, comprising many language communities, remains unresolved.
We know from the ‘invented tradition’ of nations (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983)
how small regional languages, as nationalism itself proposes, ‘help invent nations
where they do not exist’ (Gellner 1964: 164).
Linguists routinely examine the languages of states and communities because
they constitute complex communication amongst persons. Languages spread out
through multiple pathways of speech. They constantly change. They live, die, and
reinvent themselves. Language resists hypostasis—the tendency to essentialize—
even as it seeks normativity to stabilize itself into fixed, universal patterns.
Language is the measure of our relations with other persons. It is a barometer
of how we treat our neighbours near and far. It makes us human. Social theory
from John Locke to contemporary political philosophy and liberal individualism,
as Peter Ives (2019) has pointed out, has long employed a different description of
language that is both simplistic and distorted. Prêt-à-porter, it goes something like
this, ‘language is a vehicle of communication’. Such an instrumentalist description
is far from the notion that language is what makes us persons.

John C. Maher, Introduction. In: Language Communities in Japan.

Edited by John C. Maher, Oxford University Press.
© John C. Maher (2022). DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198856610.003.0001
2 john c. maher

The sensitive reality of language as a maker of personal relation and identity is

the reason why it is employed effectively as a mechanism of power and authority.
As Antonio Gramsci, a speaker of the minority language Sard, in Italian Turin,
noted,

every time the question of language surfaces, in one way or another,

it means that a series of other problems are coming to the fore: the
formation and enlargement of the governing class, the need to es-
tablish more intimate and secure relationship between the governing
groups and the national-popular mass, in other words to reorganize
the cultural hegemony.
(1985: 183–184)

The legitimation of one (dominant) language over another—linguistic ‘hege-

mony’ in Gramsci and Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘linguistic capital’—involves authority
and consent. How, then, are languages reproduced in social life: work, religion,
government, schools, festivals, and neighbourhoods? This book addresses this
question.
Speakers of languages have a right to their own history and culture. The past has
a right to be acknowledged in the present. The ultimate aim of language commu-
nities is not to return to a golden past where interactions were minimal and where
differences could be controlled. Rather, the purpose is, as the Yiddish scholar and
sociolinguist Joshua Fishman wrote, ‘to achieve greater self-regulation over the
processes of sociocultural change which globalization fosters and to counterbal-
ance it with their own language-and-culture institutions, processes and outcomes’
(2001: 6). Language, yours and mine, is the means through which we situate our
lives in communities. But not all languages are equal. For some speakers it is a
source of security and privilege, and for others it is devoiced insecurity typically
leading to deracination from their communities (see Shani 2015 on the relation
between identity and security in a globalizing world).
The very diversity or ‘differentiation’ of social objects, like languages—what so-
ciolinguists term ‘variation’ and ‘diffusion’—is unstoppable. As neo-functionalist
sociologists narrate, such social objects spread ‘from community membership that
reaches beyond ethnicity to territorial and political criteria [to the] general con-
tours of world history’ (Alexander 1988: 49). This book on the languages of Japan
is, therefore, a description of diversity and ‘differentiation’. It is a recognition of
the linguistic past in the present; many languages have forged the Japan of to-
day. In addition to the indigenous Ainu and the Ryukyuan languages as well as
Japanese Sign Language, there is the historic presence of Chinese and Korean. In
the modern period, Dutch, French, and German have been crucial in culture and
technology, Sanskrit and Latin studied in religious domains, and new language
 introduction 3

communities have emerged in the 20th/21st century. Languages come and go.
Language in society is language in motion.

A grey bell

A grey bell hangs in a city park in western Japan. The dome-shaped bell is
embossed with the map of a borderless world. Its surface bears a multilingual in-
scription. The first is Greek with the aphorism γνῶθι σεαυτóν gnōthi seauton ‘know
thyself ’ by the philosopher Socrates (4th century bce). A Japanese version of this
ancient wisdom reads, 汝自身を知れ nanji jishin o shire. The third inscription is
a quotation written in Sanskrit, rendered in Japanese as, 大無量寿経 daimuryō
jukyō—‘great everlasting life’, taken from one of the Indian Mahayana sutras. The
Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra—the ‘Infinite Life Sutra’—is an influential Sanskrit scrip-
ture in Japanese Buddhism, especially in the ‘Pure Land’ sects, Jōdo-shū and Jōdo
Shinshū.
The trilingual bell hangs in Hiroshima, the first city in the world to be nu-
clear bombed. There is symbolism in this ‘Peace Bell’ forged by the bronze artist
Masahiko Katori (1964). The bell was made in the same year as the 1964 Tokyo
Olympics were held, a turning point for Japan as it attempted to reintegrate a
still war-traumatized nation into global society. In 2021, the Olympic games re-
turned to Japan—a country that is now more multicultural than at any time in its
history—and in the closing days, the multilingual Peace Bell sounded on A-Bomb
day, 6 August.
Great languages of the world, like Sanskrit, Greek, and Japanese, are a sure
guide to knowing who we are and what we need to become. Greek symbolizes
a European culture that has deeply influenced Japanese society. In the 16th cen-
tury, the influx of European culture and languages changed Japan in language and
the arts, science and technology, food and architecture, and philosophy and ed-
ucation. Jesuit presses in Nagasaki published in Japanese, Latin, and Portuguese,
followed by the Dutch trading post of Dejima that functioned as a conduit for
Dutch and German culture during sakoku, the ‘lock up’ of the country from 1633
to 1853 (see the chapter by Florian Coulmas). Meanwhile, in the 20th century,
English achieved a unique prominence in the commercial, cultural, and educa-
tional life of the nation—as described in the chapter by Simon Cookson. Japanese
is one of the vibrant languages of the world spoken by 128 million people in Japan
and found in diaspora throughout the world from Hawaii to Frankurt and from
Southern California to Brazil. Sanskrit was the classical language brought from the
Asian continent. In the 9th century, monks from across Asia assembled in Yamato
(Japan) to pursue Buddhist studies; language teaching in Nara began from 750.
Although Sanskrit is written in the (endangered) Indic sacred alphabet Siddham
(J. shittan), the script is nevertheless studied in monasteries in Japan and extant
4 john c. maher

today throughout the linguistic/religious landscape (see the chapter by John Maher
on Latin and Sanskrit).
Languages change, but their history and value make up the present. In the book
The Languages of Ireland (2003), Michael Cronin and Cormac O Cuilleanain write,
‘For as far back as we can go the island of Ireland has been a host to a variety of
different languages and cultures. Every area of language life and cultural expression
has been informed by this contact with diverse language groups’ (9).
Among the languages and cultures in the volume are Ancient Greek and Latin,
Irish, English, French, German, Ulster Scots, and Irish Sign Language. The book
on Japan presented here adopts a similar stance. People alter their customs and
values over time. They pass them on, together with languages. These connections
can be easily forgotten. People lose interest in traditional practices or they become
difficult to maintain. Migrants, especially, adapt their former ways of doing things
to their new situation. The symbolic meanings attached to features of language and
culture like greetings and dress, food, and family customs may become obscured
and disappear. New ways and social norms supplant them. Language is tradition
in motion.

Minding the gaps

Japan lies geographically on the periphery of the Eurasian continent but lin-
guistically in an axis of language contact and language change in the region.
Japan is a dynamic interplay of territory and community, language and dialect,
people and history. Community languages in Japan have hybrid configurations.
Some are bound to ethnicity—like Ainu. Some are coterminous with territory—
like Ryukyuan, or active in social networking and education—like Japanese Deaf
Sign, or historically linked to urban neighbourhoods like Chinatown and Korea-
town. Some languages are located in migrant-newcomer industrial towns, such as
Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.
Language is a social kaleidoscope that forms endless shapes and colours: stan-
dard and community languages, indigenous languages, dialects, and styles of
speech. It can take the form of a big common language like Standard Japanese that
unifies citizens, creating a means for nationwide dialogue. It can take the shape
of the historic, regional dialects of Hakata, Kyoto, and Sendai, reflecting differ-
ent histories and traditions. Language is shaped differently in the speech style of
children in a junior high school in urban Osaka or the conversation of old people
doing morning calisthenics in a park in Wakkanai, northern Hokkaido. Language
looks different in the specialist register used in a hospital in downtown Tokyo
and a fishing boat off the coast of Nagasaki. Recognizing diversity is a call to re-
structure attitudes, our doxa of unquestioned views about language in society. The
diversity of languages in various speech communities challenges our conception of
 introduction 5

society. It is also a call to revise the operation of social institutions, like school and
the workplace, so that language and language disadvantage may be more clearly
understood.
In many 21st century nations of the world, there still exists the disjuncture
between popular nostalgia/desire for static traditions and cultural homogeneity
bolstered by robust anti-immigration law, and on the other hand, serious ac-
commodation by local cities and towns to manage and understand their ‘ethnic
spaces’, minority populations, and language diversity. The meta-problem of how
to describe language diversity in society is also a problem of social history. It is a
question of how we picture ‘our past’, ‘our history’, and ‘our national identity’.
This book provides new avenues for reflection on multilingual and multicul-
tural living in Japan. It is both descriptive and illustrative as well as presenting a
sociolinguistics of ideas. It straddles the divide that Heinrich (2019) illuminates
between the laissez-faire and socially uncritical gengo seikatsu (‘language life’), the
traditional study of language in Japan, and a more socially engaged sociolinguis-
tics that is inclusive and questioning. The book narrates the various languages and
communities found in urban and rural life, throughout the Japanese archipelago
today, as well as in the cultural history of Japan. It describes the current situation
of the languages of Japan: mainstream and minority languages, indigenous lan-
guages, and new migrant languages. This book provides a perspective on Japan as
a historic, multilingual region that is undergoing globalization of the economy,
tourism, labour, and migration.

Conceptualization and structure

The Japanese archipelago consists of approximately 1,000 islands. A variety of lan-

guages and dialects are used by a population of 127,000,000 who mostly live in
the densely populated coastal areas along four main islands of Honshu, Kyushu,
Hokkaido, and Shikoku. Cultural and linguistic diversity is part of the heritage of
the Japanese-speaking populations. This book, therefore, captures the situation of
language and cultures of contemporary Japan. A mainstream language—such as
Japanese described in this book from a global as well as multiple perspective—is
itself not a hard-shelled, well-defined entity (see the chapters on global Japanese by
Kazuko Matsumoto and intranational Japanese by Junko Hibiya). Everyday spo-
ken Ainu has declined, but its symbolic cultural role in the Ainu communities is
robust and there are numerous Ainu language classes. Historic languages such as
Chinese and Korean have been spoken and written in Japan for several hundred
years. They have been revitalized by increased migration. The number of new-
comer languages, such as Nepalese and Vietnamese, is increasing as Japan opens
the door to systematic immigration. Language planning which in Europe is termed
‘lesser-known languages’ is taking a new direction. For instance, the profile and
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
to work well; so that Andy was now able to attend strictly to
business, and not spend most of his time trying to keep an
equilibrium.
The biplane had kept on rising, even after Frank brought his craft on
an even keel. He wondered what the meaning of this movement
could be. At the moment all he could think of was that Puss believed
he would be able to make better direct time if he kept just fifty feet
above the line of flight adopted by his rival.
The shouts became dimmer as they left the aviation field further in
their wake. Still they knew that every eye was focused on their
movements, and hundreds of glasses brought into use to note every
little movement of the two rival craft.
Frank seemed just as calm and collected as though he had been
going off on an ordinary little trip, to give the engine a warming-up.
From where he sat he could watch the working of the wonderful little
Kinkaid engine; for in a monoplane it is always secured before the
pilot. Some aviators incline to call this an advantage, because with a
biplane the engine must of necessity be back of the navigator.
He and Andy could converse without trouble, should the spirit move
them. True, with the little engine doing its liveliest, and the muffler
not throttled in the least, there arose a necessity for raising the voice
a trifle in order to be heard even a foot away; but Andy had good
lungs.
“Frank, they’re holding the advantage!” he exclaimed, when they had
been moving along for another minute, and heading almost straight
for the summit of the high mountain.
Looking down, Andy could see the trees of the forest far below. A
thousand feet, yes, possibly twelve hundred, they had risen without
making use of the usual method of “boring” for altitude. It was really
higher than as yet they had dared venture. Still, strange to say, Andy
did not feel the least particle of fear in connection with any possible
tumble.
His anxiety was concentrated upon the chances of the biplane
leading them all the way along the journey, just as though it were a
procession, and Puss the grand marshal.
“I know it,” replied Frank, without showing any concern.
“But we must break into their pace better than this, if we hope to
win!” declared Andy, who had taken a look upward, to see the
grinning face of Sandy Hollingshead turned down toward them, just
as though he already scented victory in the air.
“Don’t you worry, Andy!” Frank simply said.
“Are you holding back anything?” demanded the other, eagerly.
“A little. We can do better. Just wait, and trust me!”
Andy breathed more easily. When Frank spoke like that it always
gave him a new lease on hope. That came of knowing his cousin so
well, and having such perfect confidence in his sterling abilities.
When Frank Bird said “Have faith, and trust me to pull through,”
Andy was ready to believe almost anything could happen.
So he once more turned his eyes on the cap of the great mountain
which they were approaching at a rapid rate.
Old Thunder Top was indeed an imposing spectacle as seen from a
level. Of course, in the eyes of real mountaineers, the elevation
would have been a trifle, and they might have spoken of it as a mere
“foothill”; but to all loyal Bloomsbury boys it was always referred to
with respect, as the “Mountain”! Perhaps the fact of those queer cliffs
preventing any one from reaching the summit added to the
admiration with which it was gazed upon. Had the boys been
accustomed to picnicking upon that top whenever they pleased, it
must have lost much of its grandeur.
Frank had judged wisely.
“We are on a direct line with the top, don’t you think?” he asked
presently.
“As near as I can say, we are,” replied the other, as the monoplane
veered just a trifle when a gust of wind, coming from beyond the
peak, met her, and Frank manipulated his aerial steed after a clever
fashion he had inaugurated.
“If anything, a little higher,” continued Frank.
“Yes, that’s a fact,” assented Andy, with another keen look.
“That’s what I wanted. Sure you’ve got that flag handy, are you?”
went on the pilot of the speeding monoplane.
“Just you get there, and you’ll see how soon I jump out and wave it!”
declared Andy, with a vim.
Frank looked up.
The biplane still led, though by a narrow margin. At the same time, if
the relative distance were maintained to the close of the race, Puss
and Sandy would be able to land on the level plateau of the
mountain top a few seconds before them, and that would win out.
And Frank had now to decide in his active mind whether the vital
second had not arrived when he meant to release the little extra
speed he had been so jealously husbanding ever since they started.
He believed that Puss had opened his throttle to its widest extent
from the beginning, and would not have any reserve force left.
Knowing the reckless nature of his rival gave him this idea. If it
proved true, there was nothing to be feared, and they could
outdistance the biplane without difficulty.
The mountain top was now near enough for them to see the
formation of the rock. It was a matter of considerable moment
whether there was a level space large enough to allow of a landing
in safety; for an aeroplane cannot stop in twenty feet of clear ground
when going at speed.
The sun was now starting down its western journey, and
unfortunately it interfered to some extent with a clear view. Frank had
even thought of this. It was of tremendous importance to him that he
knew just what he had to expect when he attempted to land on top of
that pile of rock; and in order to assist his eyesight he had fastened a
pair of good field glasses, so that he could glue his eyes to them for
a couple of seconds, while the monoplane was shooting along in a
direct course.
The result satisfied him that his little scheme had paid, for he made a
mental photograph of the plateau, and noted just which side offered
the better advantage in the way of a landing place.
But now the decisive second was at hand when he must release his
little reserve speed, and send the monoplane on a trifle faster.
Much depended on the result. If Puss had been wise enough to do
the same thing he would be able to retain the advantage which he
now possessed, perhaps even add to the gap between them.
And so it was with more or less trepidation that Frank gave his
throttle its very last push.
“Oh!” exclaimed Andy, who of course felt the little jump which this
new impetus gave the already drumming motor.
Of course the ever watchful Sandy, from his eyrie above, would
immediately discover this maneuver on the part of the rival
aeroplane, and communicate the news to his companion.
What then? Would the pilot of the biplane simply follow suit, and thus
increase the speed of his craft? That would be the logical deduction,
if only Puss had any surplus in reserve.
Andy was on the watch, for that was a part of his business. Having
little else to do, since Frank managed the engine and the tail rudder
entirely, he was expected to discover, and report, everything that
might bear in the least on their chances.
And Andy immediately gave utterance to a low cry of delight. Even
had he not spoken a single word Frank would have known full well
that they were now rapidly closing the little gap that up to now had
stood between the monoplane and its larger rival.
“We’re going to run past them, Frank!” exclaimed Andy, doubtless
quivering with concentrated nervousness and delight. “Already we’ve
cut their lead down by half! Oh! don’t poor old Sandy looked scared
now! We’ve got them on the run, Frank, as sure as you live!”
But Frank made no answer. Perhaps a slight smile, as of pleasure,
may have crossed his set face. Only too well did he know that when
Puss Carberry was concerned, a fellow could never be positive of
having won until the line were actually crossed; and even then it was
his favorite stunt to claim “foul!”
To tell the truth, Frank would be very much easier in his mind when
once they were clear of that hovering biplane, whose Gnome engine
was banging away just above them as though scores of guns were
being discharged in rapid succession.
The suspicion that had flashed athwart his mind earlier in the race
now returned in double force; he feared lest those reckless rivals,
ready to take the most desperate chances rather than confess to
defeat, would attempt one of their customary mean tricks.
That may have been why, in the very beginning, Puss had insisted
upon keeping at a higher level than the other aeroplane! It gave him
the privilege of seeing how his rival might be coming on, without
craning his neck. It also opened up an opportunity for something to
drop, of course accidentally, just when the smaller air craft was
forging ahead!
Frank drew a long breath. He knew that the crisis of the race was
now upon him. The speed of the biplane had not increased by even
a fraction, which fact proved plainly that Puss had not held anything
in reserve.
Then it looked very much as though Puss and his chum were bound
to be beaten, unless they adopted some underhand tactics, trusting
to the distance, and the little haze encountered at this height, to
screen their despicable action from the eyes of those who looked
through all those glasses.
And Andy too must have feared something of the sort, for he was
keeping his eyes fastened on the biplane, now almost directly
overhead. Frank knew that he must meet the sudden emergency, if
one arose, with quickness, if he meant to prevent a catastrophe. He
was resolutely determined not to slow down, and allow the others to
gain a victory they had not earned; that was not Frank Bird’s way.
“Oh! he’s going to drop something on us, Frank!” cried Andy,
suddenly.
“Who is—Sandy?” demanded the other. “Give me a push as it leaves
his hand!”
Andy did not understand, but he was in the habit of minding what
Frank said; and three seconds later he brought his elbow sharply
against the pilot’s side.
Sandy had let go above, allowing the bulky object to fall through
space!
 CHAPTER XXII.
WELL WON!

Instantly Frank closed the throttle, and shut off all power!
It was taking a big chance; but there was nothing else to be done.
No matter what it was Sandy had let slip, expecting that it would fall
upon the monoplane, to at least cause consternation, and in some
way lessen the speed of the smaller craft, Frank did not mean that it
should strike them, if he knew it.
Of course their speed instantly slackened; not much, perhaps, but
just enough to allow of a miss in the calculations of the unscrupulous
Sandy.
Some object whizzed past, just in advance of the now descending
monoplane. Immediately it went by, Frank, under the belief that the
danger was now over, once more carefully opened the throttle.
Joy! the faithful little Kinkaid answered to the call, and began to
renew its former volleying. Once more they were going along swiftly,
though a bit lower than when the sudden emergency had caused
such prompt work on the part of the wide-awake pilot.
Frank shot a look upward.
The biplane had not diminished its speed an iota all this while. Puss
was attending to his part of the business, leaving all other matters in
the care of his well groomed assistant.
Both of them were leaning forward, staring down and backward at
the monoplane. Even at that distance Frank could see that their
faces were as white as chalk, as though the enormity of what they
had done now burst upon them. Perhaps they may even have felt a
spasm of relief at that moment, because the sand bag which had
been dropped had missed its intended target, thanks to Frank’s
ready wit.
Now the monoplane seemed to be pushing forward with more speed
than ever, as if bent on making up for lost time. And Frank was
rising, too, for he knew he must of necessity find himself above the
crown of the mountain, when ready to alight.
“What was that they dropped?” he asked of Andy.
“Looked like a sand bag,” replied the other; “but whatever would they
be doing with such a thing in a biplane?”
“That was what I wanted to know,” replied Frank, “when I saw it tied
there with a cord; and Puss explained that he and Sandy were not
quite heavy enough. Said their experiments had proved the biplane
could make faster time with a little more weight!”
“He just lied!” burst out the indignant Andy. “A hundred to one they
took that sand bag up with them on purpose to drop it on us if we
tried to pass. And look how he kept hovering up there. That gives
him away, I tell you!”
“Perhaps he got the idea from hearing how that other sand bag
came down on our lumber pile, nearly squashing us while we slept!”
observed Frank.
“Well, he only had one, didn’t he?” questioned Andy, showing
considerable nervousness; for they were now once more directly
under the biplane.
“Only one, so the trick can’t be duplicated,” answered Frank,
confidently.
“I wouldn’t put it past that sneak Sandy, to let a monkey wrench drop
on us, if he could lay hands on one,” cried Andy; and then raising his
voice he shouted: “Hey! don’t you dare try that trick again! Accidents
don’t happen twice in succession; and they’ll hang you for murder if
anything knocks us out. They can see everything that goes on up
here!”
Possibly this was stretching it pretty lively; but all the same Andy
meant to frighten Sandy, so that he would not dream of following up
a blunder by a second miserable attempt.
“It’s too late, anyhow!” said Frank, with a vibration in his voice that
might be caused by anticipated triumph.
“Yes, we’re passing them, as sure as you live! Look at the poor old
biplane dropping out of the race, Frank! Why, it might just as well
stand still as try to keep up with this dandy little airship, once you pull
the throttle wide open! We’ve got ’em beat to a frazzle, I tell you!
Goodbye, fellows. We’ll wait for you on top of old Blitzen and
Thunder! Sorry, but somebody’s got to eat the drumsticks of the
turkey!”
Andy was feeling immensely relieved. The monoplane no longer
ranged under its larger opponent. Superior speed, backed by careful
management, had given them the lead. And as Andy declared, it
looked as though the race might end in a real Garrison finish, the
one behind shooting to the front when on the home stretch.
No matter what they would have liked to do, Puss and Sandy were
now helpless to hinder the triumphal arrival of their rivals on top of
the mountain. Everything depended on the success that might attend
Frank, when making his drop. Should he make a bad job of it, and
shoot beyond the other edge of the plateau, possibly after all the
others might be the first to land. It was their only hope.
Frank knew what he had before him. He was keenly alive to the
chances of making a poor landing. And like a wise general he had
anticipated all such things before now, even practicing stopping
within a certain limited space when going at full speed.
“We’re high enough, all right, Frank!” cried Andy reassuringly, as
they swooped down toward the top of the ominous cliffs that had
always barred their gaining lodgment on the crown of Old Thunder
Top.
“Yes, no doubt about that, Andy,” returned the other, confidently.
“Now, be ready for your part. Remember, not to blunder, or we may
lose out yet. They are coming hotfooted after us, you know!”
“I’ll remember. You can trust me, Frank!”
Really, Andy was showing commendable grit and steadiness as the
termination of the fierce race through the upper currents of the air
drew nearer and nearer its termination. There was hope that in time
he might conquer that nervousness of his, and play his part as a
worthy successor to his famous father, the professor.
Like a great bird they sailed straight for the plateau marking the flat
top of the elevation. Frank could even see the nest of sticks and
grass that marked the home of the two great kings of the air, the bald
eagles, now circling around overhead, and evidently greatly excited
at the coming of these astonishing creatures, with their loud
crackling voices.
“Say, you don’t think they’ll tackle us, and knock us off the rocks?”
cried Andy, who had also been taking notice of the wheeling birds,
now swooping down, and anon rising higher on outspread pinions.
“Keep an eye on ’em!” was all Frank could say; for just then they
were close to the outer edge of the plateau, and his entire attention
had to be focused upon what was before him, since one little
misjudgment might bring about the ruination of his plans, however
admirably fashioned.
Andy had already clutched the little pole to which the National
emblem was fastened, so that not a second might be lost in giving it
to the breeze, once his feet touched the plateau. But his anxiety was
sufficient to cause him to reach to the tool box, and extract a rather
long alligator-jaw wrench, which he had in his mind as the most
suitable weapon of defense, in case of an emergency, in which one
of those old pirates of the air figured.
Angry shouts came from the rear. Of course it was the very last
despicable little scheme of the baffled plotters, by which they hoped
to disconcert Frank enough to cause him to make a bad landing, so
that they might come swinging along in time to fly the flag first.
But Frank was not built that way. It would have to be something
much greater than a few harmless hoots, to cause him to lose his
head, especially when so very important a result depended on his
nice judgment.
He had calculated to a fraction of a foot just how far above the
plateau the monoplane was situated, so that when he shut off the
engine they would drop lightly just where he figured.
And Andy knew how to apply the drag brake, so as to haul up in a
short distance.
All the same it must have been a moment of extreme anxiety to both
of the daring young aviators. They had victory within their grasp, and
in another few seconds it would be clinched and riveted, when their
flag flew from the crown of the now conquered Old Thunder Top, that
had so long defied all attempts at mastery.
Just as Frank had figured the monoplane glided down after the
engine was stopped, and touched the rocks as gently as ever he had
come to earth, running along on the three bicycle wheels, jolting over
the rough surface, yet gradually coming to a standstill, as the brake
got in its work.
Indeed, the aeroplane had not actually come to a stop before Andy
was out of his seat, and wildly flaunting the flag that had been given
him by the head of the sports committee. He knew that every eye far
away was riveted on the spot, and that since the biplane was still
afloat, those who had glasses could readily see how the other air
craft had landed first, and hence won the race.
Of course Andy shouted like a young cowboy; he would hardly have
been human not to have found some such outlet for the pent-up
emotions that were threatening to suffocate him.
And naturally enough, those victorious whoops must have been so
like gall and worm-wood to the disheartened pair just about to alight
on the plateau, a quarter of a minute after the victors had taken
possession.
Frank knew too that there must be the added consciousness of
having attempted a nasty trick, and failed! There is possibly no
meaner feeling that can overwhelm a boy than to realize that he has
tried to down a rival through trickery, that must have been apparent
to many eyes, and failed.
But Frank’s was a generous nature. Even then he was resolved not
to press the charge against his defeated rivals. No harm had
resulted from the contemptible endeavor to delay or injure them; and
doubtless already Puss must regret that he had ever allowed himself
to conspire with Sandy to carry it out. Surely he could not have
realized what a terrible thing it was they had attempted. Let it go as
an accident then; but all the same Frank was bound to make sure
that he did not again sail the upper currents under any sort of an air
craft which either Puss Carberry or Sandy Hollingshead piloted.
The others managed to alight on the plateau, though their
momentum was enough to have carried them over the other edge
had not Frank, who had left his own machine, laid hold and held the
biplane back.
Puss looked white and confused. Sandy, on the other hand, scowled,
and clenched his hands menacingly, as though so sore over his
defeat that he was almost tempted to rush on the cheering bearer of
the flag, and have it out with him there on the very apex of Old
Thunder Top.
Possibly the sight of that long alligator-jaw wrench which Andy still
clutched in his right hand may have deterred the belligerent Sandy,
though his face continued to work spasmodically, as though he might
be saying things not at all complimentary to the object of his
aversion.
Suddenly Frank gave utterance to a shout. Faintly on the air came
the uproarious cheering of the tremendous throng, away down
yonder on the aviation field, as they saw the humiliation of the once
proud Thunder Top; but it was not in connection with this that Frank
gave tongue.
“Look out!” he cried, “the eagle!”
Sandy Hollingshead happened to be the one picked out by the angry
bird, upon whom to first try his claws and beak. The boy turned at
Frank’s cry, and just managed to throw his arm up to screen his face
from the attack. But the heavy bird struck him with tremendous force
so that Sandy was hurled over upon the rocks, and more or less
bruised and cut.
Andy ran toward him, bent on defending the prostrate lad from any
further attack on the part of the enraged feathered king of the air.
Then he stopped short, gaped at something that lay there on the
rocks, having fallen undoubtedly from one of Sandy’s coat pockets
when he was sent sprawling; and with a shrill laugh Andy snatched
the object up in his hand.
“Frank, looky here would you! Just think of me finding it up on Old
Thunder Top!”
And Frank stared, as well he might, for his chum was holding up the
missing little aluminum monkey wrench for which he had so long
searched everywhere.
 CHAPTER XXIII.
PROVEN GUILTY—CONCLUSION.

“Hurrah! found at last! Didn’t I tell you I’d run it down sooner or later,
Frank? And just to think that this sneak had it all the while; grabbed it
some time when perhaps it fell out of my pocket. It’s the greatest
thing ever! I’m glad I came up here!”
So Andy kept on crying, to the secret amusement of his cousin.
Evidently the other found more real joy in the sudden and
unexpected recovery of his missing monkey wrench, than in the
great victory which the little monoplane had won.
“Look out! There come both of them, Andy! Drop flat!” he yelled, as
he saw the circling eagles start to swoop down again.
Andy just saved himself by following directions, for one of the eagles
barely missed him. Sandy was sitting up, and rubbing the back of his
head, where it had come in contact with the hard rock. He appeared
half dazed, and evidently there was little use demanding any
explanation as to how the precious tool chanced to be in his
possession. Truth to tell, Andy never did find out, and had to jump at
conclusions.
The great birds continued to wheel and dart at the intruders, so that
all of the boys were soon engaged in defending themselves.
“They think we mean to rob their nest of the two eaglets you can see
there,” was Frank’s explanation. “Perhaps if we go over to the other
side of the plateau they may haul off, and let us embark again. I
wouldn’t like to hurt them, boys.”
“And I’d kill the whole outfit, if I had my way,” grumbled Sandy,
whose clothes were torn and marked with blood, where the sharp
talons of the furious bird had clawed along his person.
“Oh! well, we’ll leave you here to clean ’em out, if you say so,”
remarked Puss, who was himself anxious to get down from that
dizzy height as soon as possible, and feeling ugly toward all
creation, as fellows who make a bad mess of things usually are.
“Not much you don’t,” said Sandy quickly. “I’m going when you get
good and ready, bet your life on it. Wouldn’t ketch me staying up
here alone. Wow! even if I had a rope long enough to reach down,
I’d be afraid to chance it. Come along, Puss, we ain’t got no call to
stay here any longer. Let’s vamose.”
The biplane was the first to start off, and Frank was a little nervous
as to whether the thing could be successfully navigated in so short a
space. But nothing went wrong, and presently those who manned
the other aeroplane also took their places and made the trial.
The flag had been left fluttering in the breeze, Andy having fixed the
short pole in a crevice of the rocks, where he could wedge it fast.
With the aid of any fairly decent glasses it could be seen from town;
and would doubtless serve to stimulate many boys in the endeavor
to accomplish some similar feat of daring.
The eagles were still soaring in great circles, now rising, and again
swooping down on their broad pinions. Frank even feared that they
might take a notion to strike the strange bird that had dared invade
their eyrie home; but evidently the eagles had come to the wise
conclusion that they need fear nothing from the visit of the two
aeroplanes, for they followed them but a short distance, to return,
and perching on a crag give utterance to what might be called a
victorious scream.
“Say, what d’ye think of that?” demanded Andy, laughing as the
sound floated to them while speeding along. “They reckon they’ve
licked us, good and plenty.”
“Well,” said Frank, quickly, “so they have in one sense, for we gave
up the field to them. But looks to me as though Puss and Sandy
somehow don’t want to return to the aviation field. They’re veering
off as if they meant to go home.”
“Humph! guess that’s the best thing they could do anyhow, after
what happened!” grunted Andy.
“Meaning that sand bag they let drop?” remarked his cousin. “If I
were you, Andy, I wouldn’t say anything about that, unless asked.
Perhaps it was an accident, and they didn’t mean to do us any
harm.”
“Accident! You know just as well as I do, Frank Bird, that it was
meant, every time,” exploded the impulsive Andy. “It’s just the kind of
dirty trick Puss and his cowardly shadow are always playing on
those they don’t like.”
“Well, could you swear to it?” asked Frank.
“On general principles, yes I could,” answered the other, shaking his
head in an obstinate fashion.
“Then you saw Sandy unfasten the cord, or cut it loose?” Frank went
on.
“No—no, I can hardly go as far as that. He seemed to be handling
the bag, and I just guessed what he had in mind,” Andy admitted.
“Well, since we couldn’t prove our assertion it would be better to
keep mum on the subject. They’ll hatch up a story, and swear they
were just going to cast the bag over-board, thinking they might hit up
a faster pace, and didn’t see us below. You ought to know Puss
Carberry by this time; did you ever see him wanting a good excuse
for anything he did? And he can put on such an innocent face, too.
Let it drop, Andy. We won, and can afford to be generous, you
know.”
Andy could never stand out against this convincing tone of Frank’s.
“Oh! all right, if you say so, Frank, though I think you’re by long odds
too easy on the skunks. Why, if that bag had struck us in a certain
way, we might be as dead as herrings long before now. Makes me
shiver every time I look down. And after a fall of more than a
thousand feet, a fellow wouldn’t look good at his own funeral. But
since you say forget it, I’ll try to.”
When they hovered over the big field there was a whirlwind of shouts
that must have been pleasant music to these two young victorious
air voyagers returning from their recent exploit.
The next half hour was filled with plenty of excitement all around.
Frank had to guard his precious little monoplane from the crowds of
curious and applauding people who had witnessed their plucky race.
And the silver cup was indeed a beauty, well worth all the effort they
had put into their work. No one was more extravagant in praise than
Colonel Josiah Whympers, who toddled around with crutch and
cane, telling everybody he met what wonderful things Andy and
Frank were going to do some day. While most people were of the
opinion that he “put the cart before the horse” when using those two
names in that fashion, still they could forgive him, because Andy was
naturally everything to the doting old man.
Of course after that it was demanded that the Bird boys give a few
exhibition flights, just to let the gaping crowd see to what an
astonishing degree the modern aviator could guide his novel craft
through the air.
So Frank ascended to a height of nearly fifteen hundred feet, boring
his way upward after a fashion much in vogue among these pilots
who lead the world in aerial navigation; after which he descended in
spirals, being averse to attempting the risky stunt known as
volplaning, until he had learned the ropes better.
But it was all a grand circus for the thousands who viewed these
wonderful feats for the first time. And great was the uproarious
applause that greeted the young aviators after they had landed
again.
Before evening came the Bird boys once more went up, and headed
for the home field, tired but satisfied.
Dr. Bird had insisted that Frank come home for the night, since he
had been away so very long now.
“I guess there’s no danger about the monoplane,” Frank remarked,
as they locked the doors, and Andy for the twentieth time drew out
his recovered little monkey wrench to examine it carefully. “You know
Chief Waller nabbed those two men, Jules and Jean, and has them
locked up tight. Besides, now that the race is over, Puss and Sandy
will have no reason to want to injure our machine.”
“Perhaps not,” said Andy, “but Colonel Josiah ain’t going to take any
risks. He told me he had hired a watchman to sleep here in the shed
every night, just as long as we want. I’m going to hang around and
wait for him. I don’t trust Puss or his crony one little bit.”
“Well,” said Frank, as he prepared to depart on his wheel, “we’ve
had a grand day of it, old fellow; and I doubt if we ever see such a
great time again.”
“Just what I was thinking,” replied Andy, half regretfully, as though he
felt badly because all pleasant things must have an end. “There’ll be
no more races for us to win, and things will get mighty humdrum,
unless something turns up shortly.”
Little did either of the Bird boys, fresh from their victory of the air,
dream of the astonishing adventures that were soon to fall to their
portion, beside which those they had experienced, as narrated
between the covers of this book, would appear almost insignificant.
In good time the reader may be taken into our confidence, and
allowed to share in the knowledge of those stirring times that is in
our possession.
A few days later Frank and Andy happened to be among a group of
boys gathered on the campus in front of the high school building.
Although school had long since been dismissed for the summer
vacation, still the boys often congregated here by the famous
Bloomsbury school fence, to talk over things in general, such as
interested lads in a country town.
Baseball matters were being discussed, and the possibilities of a
good football season in the Fall. Frank and Andy were not so deeply
interested in these matters as usual though they did not see fit to tell
their friends just why.
Frank had been watching for an opportunity to carry out a little
scheme he had in mind, and which he had talked over with Andy,
Elephant Small, Larry Geohegan, and one or two other good fellows.
“Here he comes, Frank!” said Andy finally, as Puss Carberry and his
eternal shadow, Sandy Hollingshead, were seen approaching from
the direction of town.
Just as they were passing Larry stepped forward.
“I say, Puss, does this belong to you?” and he held out a card—none
other than the one which had been found in the hangar of the
monoplane the day after that trick of cutting the canvas of the planes
had been accomplished.
Puss was for once taken off his guard.
“Why, yes, I believe it does, Larry,” he said, immediately pulling out a
pack of fine cards. “You know I brought these up with me from the
city. See, it has the Indian on the back, and the words ‘Red Hunter.’
I’ll run them over, and see if the jack of spades is missing.”
He did so in an adept manner that told how accustomed he was to
handling such things.
“You see, it is missing,” he said triumphantly, “so I’ll thank you for
returning my black jack to me. Where did you pick it up, Larry?”
“Oh! you’re not indebted to me for its return,” declared Larry, turning
up his nose in disgust. “Frank here found it; he can tell you just
where.”
And Puss grew fairly scarlet, he hardly knew why himself, as he
turned his gaze upon the accusing face on the one whom he had
done so much to injure.
“You dropped it out of your pocket the night you visited our hangar,
and cut the canvas of our monoplane wings to flinders. I have been
saving it for you. Thank you, Puss, for admitting that you were the
author of that dirty trick,” and Frank turned his back on the confused
rogue.
Unable to frame a reply, Puss and his crony walked hastily away.
And before night the whole of Bloomsbury knew of what they had
been guilty; because Larry and Elephant refused to keep it to
themselves.
But it was not to be expected that this would cause such fellows as
Puss Carberry or Sandy Hollingshead to see the error of their ways.
On the contrary, it was only apt to make them the more bitter against
the Bird boys; and in time to come they would wish more than ever
that they could find some way by means of which they might injure
those who had so skillfully guided their little air craft to victory in the
race to the crest of Old Thunder Top.
Whether that opportunity would ever come, as well as many other
things in the line of adventure which were fated to befall the Bird
boys, must be left to another volume, which the reader, who has
followed our venturesome young aviators thus far, will be pleased to
know has already been issued under the title of “The Bird Boys on
the Wing; or, Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics.”
The End.