Labor unrest at the turn of the 20th century among the largest group of sugar workers — the Japanese — prompted plantation owners to secure workers of other nationalities because it was thought that might help keep the Japanese under control.
They turned to Koreans and Filipinos.
The plantation economy was booming when Korean immigrants arrived in 1903 and their Filipino counterparts three years later. More than 289,000 tons of sugar was produced that year — four times more than at the start of Japanese immigration.
H.M. Cooke, a member of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, wrote after the Koreans arrived that he had hopes for additional Koreans because they were starving at home. Within three years, more than 7,000 would emigrate to Hawai'i.
They came from all walks of life: farmers, policemen, students, Buddhist monks. They liked Hawai'i, in part because it was free of the Japanese military expansion that they had suffered under during two wars. Many also were encouraged to emigrate by American missionaries, who had converted large numbers of Koreans to Christianity.
And Cooke was right. Many were driven by famine and drought to seek a better life on the plantations.
Still, the plantations required a steady supply of labor, and the planters systematically recruited Filipinos in the first half of the 20th century.
Hawai'i was said to be the land of glory among Filipinos thinking of emigrating. Indeed, when they saw those who made it back, with their showy dress, they were dubbed "Hawaiianos."
Their numbers grew steadily to the point where an average of 7,630 Filipinos emigrated to Hawai'i annually during the 1920s. Eventually, they surpassed the Japanese in numbers.
Most were men from rural communities, uneducated but dreaming of making enough money to return home wealthy. Many did not bring their wives because they planned to go home someday.
But they were the lowest-paid workers, and the planters viewed them as leverage to dissuade the Japanese from organizing strikes. They signed three-year contracts to work for $18 a month.
