Picture bride stories
By: Barbara F. Kawakami
Publisher: University of Hawaiʻi Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 298
ISBN-13: 9780824866242
Subjects: Mail order brides; Biography
Description: During the 1885 to 1924 immigration period of plantation laborers from Japan to Hawaii, more than 200,000 Japanese, mostly single men, made the long journey by ship to the Hawaiian Islands. As it became apparent that they would never return to Japan, many of the men sent for brides to join them in their adopted home. These "picture brides" came to Hawaii to marry husbands whom they knew only through photographs exchanged between them or their families. Kawakami examines the circumstances that led them to marry strangers, their voyages to Hawaii, the surprises and trials that they encountered upon arriving, and the lives they led upon settling in a strange new land. She also provides substantial background on marriage customs and labor practices on the plantations.
Notes: Includes index.

"A Latitude 20 book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Kaku Kumasaka : stolen kaki and the motorbike Santa; title: Hisa Kawakami : issei pioneers who paved the way; title: Soto Kimura : tragedy and triumph; title: Tatsuno Ogawa : from Hiroshima to the Pupukea pineapple fields; title: Tei Saito : strong and resilient like the bamboo; title: Ushii Nakasone : songs of endurance and perseverance; title: Fuyuno Sawai : the scent of golden pineapples; title: Kishi Oki Tsujimura : gambare spirit (never give up); title: Kikuyo Fujimoto : from Washington Place to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel; title: Shizu Kaigo : the spirit of sho-chiku-bai; title: Haruno Tazawa : inspiration from tattered clothing; title: Taga and Kamezo Toki: "two pictures got married to each other"; title: Ayako Kikugawa : the unsuspecting picture bride; title: Kama Asato : shouldering hundred-pound bags of pula pula; title: Kana Higa : gomen yo (forgive me), it was the sake; title: Ushi Tamashiro : in search of a father's beckoning spirit.