9781422277454

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C onn ect i ng C u ltu r es T hrough F am i ly and F ood

Once Hawaii was a territory, unfair long-term labor contracts, like the ones most immigrants had signed, became illegal. Some workers ultimately returned to Japan, but others took the opportunity to move to the West Coast of the United States. In the years directly after 1908, when a massive labor strike failed to result in higher wages or better working conditions, some 40,000 laborers left Hawaii for California and the sur- rounding areas. This was the first large group of Japanese immigrants on the US mainland .

The city of San Francisco has a strong Japanese connection. This gate is the entrance to a large garden in Japantown there.