Arrival in Hawaii

This photograph dated 1893, documents the arrival of Japanese contract laborers landing in Honolulu Harbor from the S.S. Miike Maru. Hundreds of people are aboard these two boats and appear to be wearing kimonos. For me, this picture raises the most important question, what made Hawaii so appealing to the Japanese? Martin Dusinberre states that a farmer in Ōshima county, Japan made an average wage of 3.2 yen per month whereas a “Hawaii emigrant could earn about 17.7 yen a month, with the additional security of a three year contract and free accommodation.”[1] Yet, it seems that he believes that the reason for wanting to go to Hawaii varied based on what region of Japan the immigrants were coming from. He states that in the Kumage county port towns the “decline of domestic trade may have been the single most important push factor in explaining the popularity of Hawaiian emigration.”[2] But after 1894 when the government sponsored programs to go to Hawaii ended, approximately five times the amount of Japanese people than the past nine years had crossed the Pacific Ocean.[3]