In 1908, the Japanese Empire and the United States agreed to sign the Gentleman's Agreement which would restrict the Japanese immigration to Hawaii. The Japanese already living in Hawaii had the choice to either stay in Hawaii or go back to Japan. However, the ones already in Hawaii were allowed to bring over their relatives to the United States. Until [Immigration Act of 1924] was enacted in 1924, this trend continued.
The Japanese community at that time was suffering from the lack of women, partly because marriage between Asians and Caucasians were prohibited. As a result, the Picture Bride, a new strategy form of immigration took place. Picture Brides is a strategy where men and women would exchange one picture of themselves. If they like their match, they would be promised to be married. In today's terms, it would have been a matching program. Grooms and brides were matched based on the recommendatins of relatives or friends. It is easy to imagine how hard it would have been for the brides to go on a voyage with only one photo of their future husband.
"I'm working as a banker after I graduated a college in US."
A gardener who accepted a picture bride told her that he was a banker. Since she was both beautiful and talented, he couldn't confess this secret. Therefore, he decided to pretend to be a banker wearing a suit only in her presence, in the mornings and evenings. Of course this didn't last long. However, by the time she found out, she was already touched by his efforts. As a result they were able to live happily together. There were many cases that the groom and bride found a way to get along well.
However, still, there were also some tragic cases as well:
There would be a case where the bride would be disappointed by the groom, therefore the bride would run away with the man living next door.
A groom might have sold his wife based on her appearance and differences between their characters
This video is based on the true story told to us by our activity host, Ken Kaneshise-san. A long time ago, when Kaneshishe-san's grandfather was working at a plantation, he had accepted a 19-year-old woman as a picture bride. However, instead of a woman in the picture, he was met by someone else. She had actually been the sister of the 19-year-old. The 19-year-old had married with her ideal man in her hometown. Therefore, the 15-year-old young sister has been sent in her place. Overwhelmed by grief, Kaneshise-san had stayed in bed for three days. However, they were eventually able to overcome their difficulties to the extent they were able to have 11 children, where one of the children was Kaneshise-san's father.
The first sugar plantation village in Hawaii was opened in Kualoa in 1835. At the village, men's wages were $9 while the wages of women were $5, aside from food, board, and medical care. It was first paid through tickets that were only valid in the village, but eventually switched to cash. Workers in the plnatation were distinguished by their number tags called "Bango" (Japanese term for 'number'), not by their names.
Labor Force
In late 19th century, native Hawaiian people working at the plantation were suffereing from infectious disease transferred fro newcomers, thus plantation ownders had to find new resources. The first immigrants were the Chinese because of their knowledge about refined sugar production. Only the men were taken from their homeland at first, but as the demand for sugar increased, plantation owners got immigrants from Japan, Korea, Puerto Rico, Norway, and the Philippines. Each ethnic group had a difference wage standard, and people who immigrated late usually received a lower wage than others.
Working Condition
A day at the plantation village starts off with a steam whistle at 5:00 am in the morning. If workers don't start working by 5:30 am, they were punished by patrols. They were only allowed to have a 30 minute break for lunch at 11:30 am, and go back to work until 4:30 in the evening. At 8:00 pm, another steam whistle would blow for lights-out.