News Article:

The History of Japanese Immigration to the U.S.

by Sachiko Oshirabe

I am an immigrant from Japan. I was marriage to an American and moved to Hawaii with my husband. I love Hawaii, where there are many immigrants from Japan like me. Hawaii was the first U.S. possession to become a major destination for immigrants from Japan, and it was profoundly transformed by the Japanese presence.

In 1868 the first Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii. They were started from Yokohama for Hawaii, carrying 153 Japanese migrants bound for employment on the sugar plantations of Hawaii. These adventurers constituted the first mass immigration of Japanese. Then between 1886 and 1928, 180,000 immigrants came to Hawaii.

Most Japanese immigrants worked chopping and weeding sugar cane on vast plantations. The workday was long and so hard. The workers' lives were severe controlled by the plantation owners. Each planter had a private army of enforce company rules, and they take punishment for such offenses as talking, smoking, or pausing to stretch in the fields. Workers shopped at company stores and lived in company housing, much of which was meager and unsanitary. Until 1900, plantation workers were legally by 3- to 5-year contracts, and ranaway could be jailed. However, the majority of the Japanese in Hawaii remained on sugar plantations. The Japanese became the largest immigrant group among the many another immigrant group.

Then shift to next generation, outbreak of World War‡U.It remarkable activity in the Europe battle line of the 100th size party known as a Japanese descent unit or the 442nd regiment is also the "myth" Which symbolizes the Japanese descent as a model minority who gained reliance 2/3 of this Japanese descent unit is an enlistee from Hawaii. Thought the last camp was closed in 1964, World War ‡U and the camp experience continued to be the landmark event for Japanese immigrants. This heroic action and sacrifice was paved the way for the acceptance and success of the next generation of Japanese American. Their children and grandchildren had made deep roots in Hawaii and communities that were much older and more firmly established.

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