Men, that were single in the plantation would have to stay and work longer than they had expected so the government let women come as Picture Brides. They came to help the man live a stable life as a family. Women that came were around 17 or 18
years old and more than 14,000 women came from Japan between 1908 and 1824. The single men started
sending pictures of themselves or of younger men to a Japan to lure a woman to
come to Hawaii and settle down. Here is a true story: A lady came from Japan as a picture bride. When she got there, holding the picture of her soon-to-be husband, looking all over until there were only 3 feeble men left. She walked over and said, "Oh, have you seen this 17 or 18 year old man?" And one of the old men raised his hand and said, "That's me." So you see she had to get married to this man because she had already committed to this arrangement, knowing full well that she would lose face to return home to her family. Other times the men would leave the women after they had children. That was not very nice when they did those things.
