砂糖黍畑の女たち

―ハワイ日本人移民女性と1920年のオアフ島第二次ストライキ―

抄録

When Japanese large scale migration to Hawaii began in 1885, women were included in a ratio of 25%, but only as wives of the contract workers. The reason for this quota was that sugar plantation owners didn't think women were strong enough to work on the plantations and preferred single men in order to keep fees, wages and housing costs low. Their policy changed after owners realized that unattached men were less likely to remain on the plantation and that women could be a stabilizing force.
In nineteenth-century Japan, it was natural for women to work in the fields. Also given the lowest wages because of their ethnicity, earnings from wives were essential to make a living. However, during the Oahu strike of 1909, Japanese strike leaders demanded pay raises in order to support their families and communities by making women dependent and helpless as the women in the U.S.
Subsequently the Oahu strike of 1920, in an atmosphere of international attention to female workers, strike leaders, the American born Nisei and Issei with an American education, viewed women workers to be in need of pay raises and better conditions but also maternity leaves. Women were encouraged to band together, and many attended several meetings held for them. They made donations and collected strike support funds. At the protest march, women participated by wearing their unique work clothes. Although strike leaders stressed the role of women in managing the family budgets and caring for families, there were numerous opportunities for women to be engaged. It is possible that due to this strike, women could realize they were also workers who contributed to the sugar economy and to the entire Japanese community in Hawaii.