Japanese-Americans in Hawaii, Part 1: The Women Pioneers

• Documentary

Episode overview

Japanese-Americans account for around 10% of the population of Hawaii, numbering more than 180,000 people. Hawaii used to be one of the world's biggest producers of sugarcane. Japanese immigrants were brought to work in the fields from the second half of the 19th century onwards to make up for the shortage of labor. In the first of this two-part series, we look at the stories of women who built new lives for themselves as wives and mothers in an unknown far-off land.

48 minutes