From DiscoverNikkei.org

Picture Brides

Introduction: "Picture marriage (shashin kekkon) was a common practice among Japanese immigrants in Hawaii and the continental United States in the early twentieth century. Set up by a “go-between,” usually a relative or acquaintance of the immigrant man, marriage between a man in America and a woman in Japan was agreed upon after the couple—separated by the Pacific Ocean—exchanged portraits and information on their backgrounds. Immigrants at that time were made up mostly of single men who, in the absence of wives, visited prostitutes and gambled their money away. Working to reform the demoralized immigrant Japanese society, leaders of the Japanese community in America were convinced that marriage would assist their agenda. Moral reform was vital, leaders were convinced, to alleviating conditions that were the major cause of anti-Japanese sentiment in American society. This article focuses particularly on the picture-marriage practice in California, where Japanese immigration was mostly concentrated."
Published on the web site of the film, Picture Bride.
Excerpt: "It is part of our immigrant folklore to expect a mismatch of a young beautiful woman with an older, work-wearied husband whose matchmaking photo was taken many years before. The folklore of romance includes the not uncommon tales of those couples who grew to love and cherish each other. However, no community is immune from the social ills of abuse, alcoholism, gambling and the stress of a new marriage in a new country. Both these extremes, as well as the middle ground, are the history and legacy of immigrant picture brides as they labored in the canefields and in their homes to develop of a strong family community in the sugar plantations of Hawaii."
"This paper explores the legal and political ramifications of the United States immigration policy with regard to female Japanese immigrants during this time period. The 1919 Ladies Agreement forced Japan to limit the number of passports it issued to picture brides, and effectively limited the number of Japanese women who could immigrate to the U.S. Many anti-immigration forces portrayed the picture brides as prostitutes in the making. In reality, few picture brides were forced into prostitution. The picture brides were threatening to the American population as wives and mothers and workers, because in this capacity they threatened to become permanent American citizens rather than a transient population available for exploitation."
Abstract: "By examining the historical period from 1870-1920, this presentation will explore why most Chinese women were excluded from immigrating to the United States because they were assumed to be prostitutes while many Japanese women were allowed to immigrate as picture brides. Lee argues that the U.S. did not pass the Page Law of 1875 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 or issue the Gentlemen’s Agreement in 1907 for geopolitical reasons alone, as some scholars have argued. Using archival evidence, she contends that attempts to resolve the competing logics in "settling the west," which called for cheap labor and the permanent settlement of families on the West Coast, explain why the United States responded to the immigration of Chinese and Japanese women differently. These discrepant responses were a product of geopolitics, economic conditions, and class relations in the U.S, along with state and national fears over miscegenation and desires to maintain the imputed racial purity of a "white" national identity. In turn, U.S. immigration laws and policies helped to determine permanent settlement of immigrant communities and the racial and gendered character of the nation. This presentation suggests that nation-building is not simply the "imagining" of a community but is instead a negotiated process involving geopolitics, political economy, and cultural meanings of gender, race, and ethnicity."
Abstract for panel presentation at the 7th Asian Studies Conference Japan, Sophia University, June 22, 2003, in Session 30: "On the Periphery of the Empire: The Creation of New Racial, Cultural and Gender Identities in Modern Japan".
"This paper will explore the ways in which problematic gender representations of the picture brides in early 20th century Japanese emigration, particularly the fact that they were linked to gender representations of female students (the two groups overlapped) led to the formation of a discourse on the sexual depravity of picture brides."
First-person account, by a picture bride, of her emigration to America.
  • 写真花嫁をテーマにした授業プラン A Japanese lesson plan using "picture brides" as a topic (for crosscultural understanding)


"Picture Brides" in literature, media, and art

Henry Sugimoto, Untitled (Stop Picture Bride), ca. 1965. Los Angeles, Japanese American National Museum. (92.97.121) Since most issei were single men when they immigrated, it was not uncommon for them to find wives through correspondence and the exchange of photographs. Many issei women thus came to the United States as "picture brides." In 1924 the United States passed a law barring further immigration of Japanese women. Since an earlier law had already halted the mass immigration of Japanese men, it was evident that the purpose of the 1924 act was to discourage the establishment of families and communities of Japanese Americans. Sugimoto's paintings use iconic figures like Uncle Sam to refer to these historical and political events.
Henry Sugimoto, Untitled (Stop Picture Bride), ca. 1965.
Los Angeles, Japanese American National Museum. (92.97.121)
Since most issei were single men when they immigrated, it was not uncommon for them to find wives through correspondence and the exchange of photographs. Many issei women thus came to the United States as "picture brides." In 1924 the United States passed a law barring further immigration of Japanese women. Since an earlier law had already halted the mass immigration of Japanese men, it was evident that the purpose of the 1924 act was to discourage the establishment of families and communities of Japanese Americans. Sugimoto's paintings use iconic figures like Uncle Sam to refer to these historical and political events.
"Using personal interviews with 20 picture brides, all over 80, and archival photographs, this fascinating presentation explores the sad and trying time of the picture brides and how they managed to survive."
Compares the historical facts about picture brides with their representations in two works of art, Yoshiko Uchida's novel, Picture Bride, and Kayo Hatta's film, Picture Bride. Includes English-language summary.
Profile of Fairfield (Calif.) optometrist Ronald Furukawa, grandson of a picture bride, who portrays a farmer meeting his picture bride in a new Disney production.
"Issei (first generation Japanese American) 'picture bride' Toku Shimomura began a diary in 1912, the year of her immigration to the United States, and continued writing until her death in 1963. Her poignant observations, which chart her and her family's experiences during the World War II incarceration in Puyallup, Washington and Minidoka, Idaho have inspired this series of paintings and prints created by her grandson Roger Shimomura, painter and University of Kansas professor."
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