Bon Dance Panel 1 - The Japanese in Hawai’i

How did the Japanese culture and lifestyle continue in Hawai’i up to today?
The Japanese was originally the largest ethnic group, accounting for over 40% of Hawai’i's population. This percentage began to shrink from the 1930s with the influx of other ethnic groups. By Dec. 1941, they still accounted for 37% of Hawai’i's population. According to the 2000 US Census, they comprised 20% of Hawai’i's population. Today, they are still a major ethnic group in Hawai’i.

By the early 1900s, as much as 70% of sugar plantation laborers were Japanese immigrants. Hawai’i's sugar industry saw explosive growth as it catered to the world market. There was a major labor shortage so they brought in cheap laborers from overseas starting with the Chinese. Later Japan and the Kingdom of Hawai’i signed the Kanyaku Imin agreement which allowed Japanese to emigrate to Hawai’i from 1885.
The early immigrants who worked on the sugar plantations as contract laborers had planned to make money in Hawai’i and return to Japan as rich men. They did not intend to live in Hawai’i permanently. The early Japanese immigrants lived together in their own plantation camps. People from the same hometown or prefecture would form an association and help each other. This lifestyle contributed to the transference of Japanese New Year's traditions and the bon dance to Hawai’i.

Panel photo: 1885 Kanyaku Imin contract for an immigrant named Otsuki.