The introduction of a much needed plantation labor force from Japan to Hawaii in the 1880’s and the impact on Hawaiian-Japanese relations is graphically shown through the life and lynching of one immigrant, Kastu [Kobayakawa] Goto.
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Relying on personal interviews with Dr. Fumiko Kobayakawa Kaya, Goto’s niece, and period newspaper reports and other previously published material, author P.Y. Iwasaki and illustrator, Berido capture the cultural legacy and history of the early migration in the 1880’s of Japanese government contracted immigrants to Hawaii. Intermixed with Berido’s snapshot images are tibits about Japanese culture, language, history and extremely poor working conditions that led to the unrest between the Japanese laborers and plantation management.

Told through the eyes of one immigrant, Katsu Goto‘s life is a story of hardship, success, injustice, and ultimate tragedy. In 1885, at 23 years old, Goto left behind his family to join the first shipload of immigrants to sail to Hawaii. There he served three years of indentured service on a sugar plantation before he became a successful store owner. He remained an influential community leader in the fledgling Japanese community until his murder by lynching in 1889.

Ultimately, this is an interpretation of a shocking but little known incident in Hawaii’s history. ( )

This book was a good book to learn the history of Japanese people immigrating to Hawaii. I am a teacher and I think I would use this in the middle school grades. Finding the picture clues in the book is something I think kids would like as well. ( )

A short graphic novel about Japanese immigration to Hawaii in the late 1800s. Interesting topic but graphic novels are not really my thing. If not for one "bad" word and an image of a hanging, I would use this in my elementary classroom to teach about the struggles that immigrants often went/go through. ( )