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Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department or Program Affiliation

History

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

First Advisor

Hardesty, Jared

Second Advisor

Neem, Johann N.

Third Advisor

Bushelle, Emi Foulk

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the first experiment of Japanese contract labor on Hawaiian sugar plantations, connecting their presence with the shift from enslaved labor to free and contracted labor throughout the nineteenth century. Drawing inspiration from sugar societies in the Americas, Protestant missionaries and foreigners from the United States and Europe wanted to establish a plantation society reliant on Asian contract labor in Hawai‘i. The experiences of the gannenmono (first-year people) reveal how they resisted abuse from sugar planters and foiled this plan through their outright refusal to work, legal challenges, and pleas to the Meiji government.

Type

Text

Keywords

gannenmono, Asian contract labor, contract labor, era of emancipation, Hawaii, Hawaiian Kingdom, Hawaiian sugar industry, Japanese contract labor, labor in Hawaii, Meiji Japan, nineteenth century labor, plantation labor, settler colonialism, slavery, sugarcane plantation

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1522124795

Subject – LCSH

Japanese--Hawaii; Contract labor--Hawaii; Sugar plantations--Hawaii--History; Hawaii--History--To 1893; Sugar trade--Hawaii; Settler colonialism--Hawaii

Geographic Coverage

Hawaii

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

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