00:00
00:00
00:00
00:00
Many Japanese emigrated to Hawai‘i in the late 19th century. More than 29,000 Japanese laborers went to the Hawaiian Islands between 1885 and 1894 as a result of an immigration agreement that was signed between Japan and the Hawaiian Kingdom. Known as “government-contract laborers,” they crossed the ocean on three-year contracts to work on sugar cane plantations. This exhibit recreates what their lives were like. The Japanese laborers would go about their work singing songs and trying to encourage one another. The songs that emerged from this tradition are called “Holehole bushi”. You can listen to one of them here.
scroll