Issei

Patterns of Migration

Official Japanese migration to what is now the United States actually began to a place that was not part of the United States at the time: the Kingdom, Republic, and later, U.S. territory of Hawai'i. Between 1885 and 1894, there were three different periods of migration from Japan, according to Alan Moriyama. From 1885 to 1894, married couples and single men emigrated as government-sponsored contract laborers to work [Page 765]primarily on sugar cane plantations. From 1894 to 1908, migrant sponsorship shif ted from the Japanese government to private emigration companies based in Japan. Finally, between 1908 and 1924 was a period of primarily “independent” emigration, meaning most people were not sponsored by the government or private emigration companies and, instead, had the support of relatives already in the United States.

Meanwhile, patterns of migration to the U.S. mainland are generally divided into two major periods, according to Yuji Ichioka. From 1885 to 1907, migrants were mostly single male dekasegi (sojourners) who took on wage labor in mining, lumber, canneries, and agriculture. In large cities such as San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, they often worked as “schoolboys,” attending school while also working as domestic servants. The passage of the 1907–1908 Gentlemen's Agreement marked the end of prewar labor migration from Japan to the United States. From 1908 to 1924, more settled immigrant communities began to develop around urban centers and farming areas. After Hawai'i became a U.S. territory in 1900, thousands of laborers left the islands for the mainland, presumably to escape the harsh plantation conditions and to access the relatively higher wages available on the West Coast.

Issei women are probably best known as “picture brides.” This refers to the practice of arranged marriage between women in Japan (and Korea) and their countrymen living in Hawai'i and on the U.S. mainland. In most cases, the wives had seen only pictures of their husbands before meeting them upon arrival in the United States. Picture bride migration peaked between 1908 and 1924 and enabled the formation of Japanese (and Okinawan in Hawai'i) communities based on the development of families and women's additional paid and unpaid labor.

...