Japanese Sugar Plantation Workers
Dublin Core
Title
Japanese Sugar Plantation Workers
Subject
Hawai’i
Japanese immigrants
sugar
plantation
workers
immigrants
family
Japanese immigrants
sugar
plantation
workers
immigrants
family
Description
This image shows Japanese sugar plantation workers on their home in Wainaku, clutching onto their very young children. Japanese immigrants first arrived in Hawai’i not long before this photograph was taken and akin to the Chinese immigrant’s experience, Japanese men first came alone to look for work. Sugar plantation labour was ideal because the sugar and pineapple trade in Hawai’i was booming especially as transport was evolving during this time period and labourers were in demand. Thereafter, a substantial number of Japanese women immigrated as picture brides and started families in Hawai’i. Evidently in the photograph, living standards were poor as labourers did not get a decent income despite the hours of strenuous work in the fields. Labour pay would also change depending on the labourer’s sex and ethnicity even if an individual were exceptional at their tasks, and a labourer’s life tended to be very mundane and repetitive.
Creator
Charles Furneaux (photographer), Wainaku, Hawaii.
Publisher
Hawaii Alive, Waves of New Migration
http://www.hawaiialive.org/topics.php?sub=Unification+and+Monarchy&Subtopic=47
http://www.hawaiialive.org/topics.php?sub=Unification+and+Monarchy&Subtopic=47
Date
1890
Contributor
Emma Azid
Rights
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
https://www.bishopmuseum.org/
https://www.bishopmuseum.org/
Language
N/A
Type
Visual - photograph
Identifier
19th century Hawai'i
Files
Collection
Citation
Charles Furneaux (photographer), Wainaku, Hawaii., “Japanese Sugar Plantation Workers,” The American Pacific Rim: Colonisation, Conflict and Connections, 1800-Present, accessed May 2, 2024, https://theamericanpacificrim.omeka.net/items/show/240.