The Seto Inland Sea is dotted with about 700 islands of various sizes, and Suo Oshima (officially Yashirojima), located in the southeastern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture, is the third largest island. (Kawai, JANM)
Situated off the coast of western Honshu is Suo Oshima, often noted English as “Suooshima” or “Suo-Oshima,” this rural part of Japan is one of the countless landmasses that can be found out on the Seto Inland Sea. Officially part of Yamaguchi Prefecture. (Kimball)
Seto Inland Sea is the largest inland sea of Japan and is surrounded by Honshu. Shikoku, and Kyushu. Features of the Seto Inland Sea is fast tide due to a big difference of high and low tide There are high tides and two low tides twice a day.
Water level difference between high tide and low tide is called “tidal range” – here, it is 3-10-feet in the east and 10-13-feet in west. (International Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS) Center)
Suo Oshima is home to a series of peaks that are collectively called the “Seto Inland Sea’s Alps”. Comprised of Mt. Monju, Mt. Kano, Mt. Genmeizan, and Mt. Dake, the heights of this mountain quadruplet are nearly 2,300-feet tall.
Back during the Edo Period (1603–1868), Suo Oshima was overpopulated. Due to the mountainous core of the goldfish-shaped island, residents had a hard time finding ample space to live. (Kimball)
“The population is now around 15,000, but at the beginning of the Meiji period there were about 70,000. At that time, politics was in chaos, and there were also natural disasters such as typhoons, so the islanders could not make a living.”
“At the same time, the island had a history of migrant workers, and it was common for people to go out on boats. At that time, the government talked about migrant workers (overseas emigration), and many people applied. For the islanders, it probably felt like going to a faraway place for a long period of time.” (Makoto Kimoto, JANM)
A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations in Hawai‘i became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.
Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.
The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.) The sugar industry grew, so did the Chinese population in Hawaiʻi. Concerned that the Chinese were taking too strong a representation in the labor market, the government passed laws reducing Chinese immigration. Further government regulations, introduced 1886-1892, virtually ended Chinese contract labor immigration.
In 1868, an American businessman, Eugene M Van Reed, sent a group of approximately 150-Japanese to Hawaiʻi to work on sugar plantations and another 40 to Guam. This unauthorized recruitment and shipment of laborers, known as the gannenmono (“first year men”,) marked the beginning of Japanese labor migration overseas. (JANM)
However, for the next two decades the Meiji government prohibited the departure of “immigrants” due to the slave-like treatment that the first Japanese migrants received in Hawaiʻi and Guam. (JANM)
In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawaiʻi’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi.
Kalākaua’s meeting with Emperor Meiji improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government and an economic depression in Japan served as motivation for agricultural workers to move from their homeland. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)
The first 943-government-sponsored, Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants to Hawaiʻi arrived in Honolulu aboard the Pacific Mail Steamship Company City of Tokio on February 8, 1885. Subsequent government approval was given for a second set of 930-immigrants who arrived in Hawaii on June 17, 1885.
With the Japanese government satisfied with treatment of the immigrants, a formal immigration treaty was concluded between Hawaiʻi and Japan on January 28, 1886. The treaty stipulated that the Hawaiʻi government would be held responsible for employers’ treatment of Japanese immigrants.
Many Japanese people living on Suo Oshima opted to move. From 1885 to 1894, 3,913 people living on the island took advantage of the opportunity and moved to Hawai‘i (about 13.5% of the total of about 29,000 Japanese emigrants to Hawai‘i during that time). Thus, many of the Japanese now living in Hawaii originally have roots that harken back to Suo Oshima. (Kimball)
After Hawai‘i was annexed by the US, many people from Suo Oshima went to Hawaii, and many Suo Oshima people were active in Hawaiian society. After the war, many donations and goods were brought from Hawaii to Suo-Oshima. (Japan Hawaii Immigration Museum)
To commemorate the connection between Suo Oshima and Hawai‘i, the Japan Hawai‘i Immigrant Museum was opened February 8, 1999 after four years of collecting materials.
Here is a link to the Museum website: https://suooshima-hawaii-imin.com/en
The building of the Japan Hawai‘i Immigrant Museum is a reproduction of the former Fukumoto residence built by the late Chouemon Fukumoto.
After returning to Suo Oshima in 1924, he built the Fukumoto residence, which is now the Japan Hawaii Immigrant Museum, in 1928. (Japan Hawaii Immigration Museum)
Many of the materials displayed in the Immigration Museum were donated by townspeople and their families who had returned from Hawaii. The museum also has historical materials, old documents, and a data search corner for information on the history of immigration to Hawaii. (Japan Hawaii Immigration Museum)
Kauai County and Suo Oshima established a sister city relationship which was signed in June 1963. “The relationship between Japan and Hawai‘i is an integral part of our state’s historic, cultural, and economic well-being – just look at our food, our customs, and our people,” said Mayor Kawakami.
“Through our 60 years of friendship, we have come to share a mutual understanding of each other’s government, economy, agriculture, tourism, and community. And as we celebrate together this milestone, we continue our promise to pass along our customs with the next generation, keeping both Japan and Hawai‘i culture and tradition alive.” (Kauai County)
Leave your comment here: