Research
University Scholars Program
Labor, Culture, and Politics: Japanese Advocacy Movements in Hawai'i, 1900-1959
PI: James Gerien-Chen, History Department
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The most well-known event involving individuals of Japanese descent in America is perhaps the internment of tens of thousands of Japanese men, women, and children in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese American advocacy groups worked hard in the decades after World War II to ensure that the horror of this mass imprisonment would not be forgotten. While internment did impact the Japanese community that had been living in Hawai'i since the late 19th century, relatively few individuals were imprisoned compared to communities on the mainland. For those who remained, then, what struggles did they face? What was their experience like before World War II? What was it like after World War II? These are the questions this project seeks to answer.
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Focusing on three separate movements led by the Japanese community from 1900-1959, our research aims to highlight how these movements impacted the island of Hawai'i as it was annexed as a U.S. territory and then put on track to statehood, as well as how the colonization of Hawai'i impacted the Japanese community. More information about each section of the project can be found in the tabs below.
The first section of the project will focus on labor advocacy movements led by the Japanese community in Hawai'i, specifically the sugar cane plantation strikes of 1909 and 1920. Both strikes were primarily conducted to advocate for higher pay and better living conditions for Japanese workers, who were paid significantly less than and lived in comparative squalor to their white counterparts. Labor advocates were up against the politically powerful plantation companies that justified their unequal treatment of Japanese cane workers with racist and nativist arguments. Ultimately, the success of the strikes was somewhat limited, but arguments made by Japanese labor advocates asserted their right to equal treatment based on their history living in Hawai'i and their contributions to the community, sentiments that would echo into post-World War II advocacy movements for Japanese Americans to gain U.S. citizenship.
Newspaper article published January 1, 1909 in the Daily Nippu Jiji, a Japanese-run newspaper, in support of the 1909 strike.
Newspaper Source: Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection
Undergraduate Internship
History Department Undergraduate Internship
PI: James Gerien-Chen, History Department
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I will be working with Dr. Gerien-Chen to examine British consular intelligence reports and British missionary papers from south China from the years 1895 to 1911. These materials were collected and scanned by Dr. Gerien-Chen from the British National Archive and the archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
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My responsibilities will include reading these handwritten documents and analyzing them for relevant information, using both guidelines given by Dr. Gerien-Chen and knowledge from previous Asian history classes. We will work together to understand how the information in these documents was recorded and organized both at the time and in modern archival institutions.
History Honors Thesis
History Honors Thesis
Advisor: James Gerien-Chen, History Department
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In Progress