Kei Suzuki

Softcover, 36 pp.

The year 1868 brought significant political changes to Japan. The Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown and sovereign power was returned to the Emperor Meiji. 

1868 was also an eventful year for a group of men and women who left their homes in Japan to work on sugarcane plantations in Hawaiʻi. This first group of Japanese immigrants became known as the gannenmono.

Their story is one of courage and resolve in the face of many hardships. Their ability to adapt to life and thrive in a foreign land left a legacy that is evident in the lives of their descendants today.

Gannenmono: A Legacy of Eight Generations in Hawaiʻi tells the story of the gannenmono and is the companion publication to Bishop Museum's 2018–2019 exhibition of the same name.