Picture bride stories

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.