Gannenmono: First Japanese Immigrants to Hawaiʻi
On June 19, 1868, about 150 Japanese laborers — the Gannenmono, or 'first-year people' of the Meiji era — arrived in Honolulu aboard the Scioto to work Hawaiʻi's sugar plantations, the first organized Japanese immigration to the islands. Many faced harsh conditions, foreshadowing the mass Japanese migration that would reshape Hawaiʻi.