Asian Immigrants in Hawaii

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into Hawaiian culture.

Like most immigrants throughout time, Asian immigrants moved to Hawaii looking to better their lives. There was a huge wave of Asian immigration to Hawaii during the nineteenth century. "Japan agreed in 1884 to allow farmers to emigrate to hawaii to work on sugar plantations beginning the following year....The aftermath was a major population movement....[with] and annual average of over 9,900." (Tamura, 10) Rumors of the opportunities available for immigrants in America were rampant. Those rumors were heightened by immigrant companies that promised financial security and great quality of life, and offered contracts to work on sugar plantations to Chinese and Japanese jobseekers.

The major sugar and rice plantations specifically recruited Japanese and Chinese immigrants to work as cheap labor. These jobs had terrible working conditions, and have even been referred to as slave labor because the workers were so overworked and underpaid. "The daily ...

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and the Chinese and Filipino camps, and one camp for Puerto Ricans . . . . The Puunene Plantation on Maui had sixteen camps, including many Japanese as well as Filipino camps and also 'Young Hee Camp,' 'Ah Fong Camp,' 'Spanish A Camp,' 'Spanish B Camp,' and 'Alabama Camp.'" (Takaki 157) This gave the plantation owners more control over the division and control of labor, as well as preventing conflict among the various immigrant races that may have held grudges from their homeland. However, the immigrants continued to have a strong work ethic and were dedicated to making a decent living for their families. Despite these difficulties, those immigrants who settled in Hawaii were ...

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