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Note: everything on this page should be considered an addition to the existing Wikipedia page for "Asian Immigration to Hawaii". So, whatever is written in this sandbox would be added on top of what exists already on the page (unless otherwise specified).

A Brief History of Asian Immigration to Hawaii

A majority of immigration in Hawaii can be traced back to the waves of Asian immigrants who moved to the islands to work on sugar plantations in the mid to late 1800s. These sugar plantations were primarily owned by American and European business owners who treated their immigrant workers very poorly. Plantation workers worked long, hard hours and plantation owners employed private military personnel to impose punishments on workers. Punishment for workers could include expensive fines and whippings for taking breaks for any reason including smoking, talking, or stretching in the fields. Plantation owners also treated workers differently based on their race. Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino plantation workers were paid differently for the same type of work. In the following decades, immigrant populations would grow to become the majority of the Hawaiian population outnumbering both the plantation owners and indigenous Hawaiians by 1923. This lead to the formation of the Hawaii Laborer's Association in 1920 which would provide solidarity to all immigrants in the future. Asian immigration to Hawaii combined with its status as a US state transformed it into a hub for both Eastern and Western culture and keeps the ancient history of the islands alive.

'Japanese Laborers on Spreckelsville Plantation' by Joseph Dwight Strong, 1885. Depicts the conditions that an immigrant working on the plantations lived in.

Japanese Immigrants

The Japanese have one of the longest and most in-depth histories among other immigrant groups in Hawaii. Before the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898, Japanese immigrants came in droves from the mid to late 1800s to work on the sugar plantations. While the conditions at the plantations were bad, the immigrants had the freedom to create their own homes and communities on the island. Japanese people quickly became the largest fraction of the population by 1923. Japanese immigrants were able to create thriving communities due to their large population, bringing their culture directly to the islands by building restaurants and traditional buildings like Buddhist temples at nearly every sugar plantation. Throughout the 1900s, Japanese immigrants continued to develop their communities and moved to the cities in large numbers to acquire higher paying jobs and create new businesses. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II, a fraction of the Japanese population in Hawaii was put into internment camps across all the Hawaiian islands, despite many Japanese people in Hawaii being Hawaiian-born citizens by that time. However, the US government did not put the entire Japanese population into internment camps since they were such a large percentage of the Hawaiian population. So, despite the tension these camps caused, the Japanese population in Hawaii was able to recover from that tension in the following decades. Today, Hawaii and Japan have strong economic ties in tourism and trade thanks to the presence of both Hawaiian and Japanese culture.

Chinese Immigrants

Chinese contract laborers working on a sugar plantation in 19th century Hawaii.

The Chinese have a longer history in Hawaii than the Japanese, arriving in the early 1800s and introducing sugar production to the islands. Chinese immigrants played a major part in Hawaiian history, seeing as the first Chinese immigrants arrived in Hawaii before the death of King Kamehameha I in 1819 and were the first to bring sugar cane harvesting technology to the islands. Following the death of King Kamehameha I, the Kingdom of Hawaii sold much of its land to foreigners who went on to create sugar and pineapple plantations. Then, in 1850, the Kingdom of Hawaii allowed Chinese immigrants to work on these plantations, with Japanese immigrants and others to follow. The Chinese were the most familiar with Hawaiian culture and language, and assimilated with the Native Hawaiian culture in addition to creating their own communities. As new waves of Chinese immigrants arrived in Hawaii to work on the plantations, their story largely became one of mistreatment and abuse by plantation owners. Many of them were contracted workers like many other immigrants of different ethnicities. In response to these abuses, the Chinese and Hawaiian governments implemented various laws to limit or cease Chinese immigration to Hawaii from 1881 to 1892. Then, once Hawaii became a US state in 1898, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 once again denied Chinese people the ability to immigrate to Hawaii. However, the Chinese population was already large and established in Hawaii, and thousands of Chinese immigrants began moving into the cities and out of the plantations to get higher paying jobs. These families would go on to develop newer, higher paying jobs in the cities and grow their communities to this day.

Filipino Immigrants

The first Filipino immigrants arrived in Hawaii in 1906 as contract laborers for the sugar plantations like the Chinese, Japanese and Korean immigrants. However, Filipino immigrants arrived in Hawaii in greater numbers a few decades later after World War II. Today, they are the largest group of immigrants to Hawaii, making up about 15% of the Hawaiian population according to the 2000 US census. Despite making up a large percentage of the population, Filipinos in Hawaii are nearly all working class. They do not have wealthy, high paying jobs like many Japanese, Korean, and Chinese people do today.

Korean Immigrants

Korean immigrants began to immigrate to Hawaii in 1903 following the annexation of Hawaii by the US in 1898. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 applied to Hawaii when it became a US state, so plantation owners began hiring Korean immigrants in 1903 to replace Chinese laborers. An even larger group of Koreans also immigrated to Hawaii in 1905 to escape turmoil in their home country, leading to a surge in the Korean population in Hawaii. After this wave of Korean immigrants, there was a decline in immigration to Hawaii due to its new status as US state and military installation. The Koreans were one of the last major ethnic groups to immigrate to Hawaii to work on the plantations and create a community before Hawaii became a military and tourist hotspot leading up to World War II and beyond. Korean immigrants were treated similarly to other workers on the plantations, but they developed communities similar to the other immigrant groups and benefitted from the Hawaii Laborer's Association formed in 1920.

Bibliography

• "Japanese laborers arrive - Hawaii History". www.hawaiihistory.org. Retrieved 2021-10-02

• Odo, Franklin. "Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Making of the Nation". nps.gov. Retrieved 2021-10-02

• "Hawaii: Life in a Plantation Society". loc.gov. Retrieved 2021-10-02
• Nordyke, Eleanor C. and Lee, Richard K. C. (1989). "Chinese in Hawaii: A Historical and Demographic Perspective". Hawaiian Historical Society. Retrieved 2021-10-02
• "A Brief History of Filipinos in Hawaii". hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-02
• Chung, Soojin. "History of Korean Immigration to America, from 1903 to Present". sites.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-03
• "Honouliuli Internment Camp". nps.gov. Retrieved 2021-10-03