Part One (continued)

The influx of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino laborers brought to Hawaii paralleled Chinese migration to California. Between 1850 and 1920, over 300,000 Asians immigrated to Hawaii as def-facto indentured servants for the arduous labor on sugar plantations. These immigrants radically changed the makeup of Hawaii. Before the importation of Asian laborers, Hawaiians constituted 97% of the 74,000 inhabitants in 1853. After this large wave of Asian immigrants in 1920, Hawaiians constituted only 16% of Hawaii’s population. The other ethnic groups were as follows: Japanese 42%, Portuguese 10%, Chinese 9%, Filipinos 8% and Caucasians 8%. The “Big Five” sugar plantation companies brought these groups to Hawaii and played them one off another in order to maintain control and to prevent labor strikes.

Hawaii was ethnically very different from the continental United States. In 1920, Asians constituted over 60% of the population of Hawaii, as compared to only 3% of the population in California and less than 0.2% percent of the continental United States. Asians in Hawaii also enjoyed greater opportunities than their continental counterparts. The Sugar Strike of 1941 ended control by the Caucasian minority, when laborers put aside their differences and united for better working conditions. Although racial tension existed in Hawaii, it differed from the racial tension faced by Asians on the continental United States. While racial tension in Hawaii ran between Asian groups, these groups collectively formed the majority population and shared a common enemy: the elite Caucasian minority that ran the sugar plantations. Racial tension on the continental United States, however, ran mainly between the Caucasian majority and the Asian minority, which constituted less than half a percent of the population. While other minority groups were also discriminated against, they did not work closely with the Asian minorities and the opportunity to collectively come together to overcome discrimination did not exist, as it did in Hawaii.

While both groups immigrated to the United States at roughly the same time, conditions necessary to enable youth to attend law school occurred in Hawaii, but did not readily occur on the continental United States. Upward mobility was more attainable in Hawaii than in the continental United States for several reasons. Rather than discourage people, the harsh conditions of the sugar plantations drove workers to aspire for a better life; the key was education. Parents scraped and saved to keep their children in school until they graduated from high school. A few even sent their children away to college on the continental United States, which was considered a financial luxury at the time. In spite of daily toil, immigrant’s feelings for Hawaii changed. “With my bare hands and calloused heart and patience,” a worker boasted, “I helped build Hawaii.” Such was the new feeling. The successful combined Sugar Strike of 1941 brought Asians together as never before. As Japanese workers marched for higher wages, they said their work was kodomo no tame ni, “for the sake of the children.”

The opportunities for Asians in Hawaii to make a place for themselves were much greater than their counterparts on the continental United States. The Asians in Hawaii lived in a society where the elite included dark-skinned Hawaiians. They lived in stationary plantation communities where they formed a critical mass and collectively constituted a majority.

One of the most important conditions that enabled upward mobility in Hawaii was the presence of Asian women, who were brought in as “picture brides” by the plantation owners through a legal loophole in order to keep the male population from returning to Asia. This enabled Asians in Hawaii to establish families much sooner than their counterparts on the continental United States, who were unable to establish families due to the transient nature of labor on the west coast and to the shortage of women. It is important to note that Asians on both the continental United States and Hawaii were unable to become naturalized citizens. While the Organic Act of 1900 extended citizenship to most citizens of the Republic of Hawaii during annexation, this did not apply to Asians because they were excluded from citizenship in the Republic, and thus were not citizens of the United States. While both groups faced difficultly in becoming naturalized citizens, Asians in Hawaii had a greater chance of bearing children born on American soil with rights and privileges that legal exclusionary acts could not take away.

In later years, these conditions set the stage during for Hawaiian Japanese Americans to volunteer for the United States military during World War II in record numbers. Japanese Americans returned home as some of the most decorated war heroes of World War II, and proved their worth and loyalty to America. The Democratic Party Revolution of 1954 served as a catalyst for change in Hawaii, when Asian Americans took control of important seats in the territorial legislature. These seats were previously occupied and controlled by the Caucasian minority since the mid 1800s. This feeling of upward mobility and change encouraged Asian Americans to travel to the continental United States to pursue a law degree and a better life.

Part Two: Early Asian Americans at Boston College Law School