Celebration to Mark 150th Anniversary of Japanese Immigrants in Hawai‘i

The Kizuna Group and the Gannenmono Committee will celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the first Japanese Immigrants to Hawai‘i with year-long festivities beginning with the New Year’s Ohana Festival on Jan.14, 2018, at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii.

The Gannenmono, or ‘first year men,” arrived in Hawai‘i from Yokohama in 1868.

They numbered approximately 150 people from Japan of diverse backgrounds such as urban dwellers, artists, cooks and displaced samurai.

These immigrants were the first of what would become wave after wave of Issei, the first generation.

Working mainly as laborers or in the sugar cane fields, by 1924, so many Japanese had come to the islands that they constituted over 40% of the population.

The Association of Nikkei and Japanese Abroad will participate in the festivities with their Annual Convention planned on June 6, 2018, in Honolulu.

Supported by the Japanese Consulate of Honolulu, State of Hawai‘i and the City and County of Honolulu, the Commemoration Ceremony and Symposium is planned on June 7, 2018, at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.

The guest speakers at the Symposium will include Dr. Dennis Ogawa, Dr. Akemi Kikumura and Dr. Masako Iino.

For more information or for a calendar of events, visit www.kizunahawaii.com.