The early 20th century saw the migration to California of “picture brides” – young women who left behind homes and families in Japan for a far-away land and an unknown way of life. They traveled in steerage, carrying little more with them than the photos of the dashing and prosperous young men who were their new husbands. Departing Japan was soul-wrenching, the passage to California was arduous, and the husbands who met them upon their arrival were usually not handsome and were very likely to be poor.
Loveless marriages, back-breaking jobs, constant pregnancies and poverty were often the lot of these brides. Their children added to their heartbreak by Americanizing their names, refusing to speak Japanese, and rejecting the traditions of their ancestors. Still, the mail order brides struggled for decades to gain a toe-hold in a foreign country that never welcomed them and was intolerant of their alien ways.
