Picture Bride
Posted on 10. Feb, 2007 @ 8:12 am by harvey in Media
I heard about this movie, Picture Bride
It came up during a discussion about the early Japanese immigrants to the United States.
I’m no history buff, but it seems the story goes like this…
Back in the early 1900′s, the United States only allowed male Japanese to immigrate to the US, mostly to Hawaii and states on the west coast. The male-only condition was established because their stay in the US was meant to be only temporary, and for business purposes only. You don’t need a wife for a temporary stay, and having one along would only create the risk that the Japanese might create a family, and get settled in.
This caused all sorts of unspeakable problems.
Later, the law was changed to allow Japanese men who came to the US after being married in Japan to send for their wives to come join them in America. However, it was required that the men show a picture of their bride in order to be granted permission to bring them over.
Eventually, “organizations” (match-makers) appeared that would essentially traffic women from Japan to America for the purpose of getting married to a Japanese man who was already abroad.
In order to do this “legally”, they would present women in Japan with pictures of handsome looking men in exchange for their own picture. They would then use the pictures of the Japanese women in order to get them into America. Once they were abroad, they were introduced to their new husbands, who more often than not looked nothing like the prize specimen of whom they were promised in the picture.
Everything looks better on paper huh? The women were then forced into labor on arrival.
This movie is about one of those “photo brides”, and the trick husband she was introduced to.
I need to see this. Anyone here ever seen it? Was it any good?
There is a wikipedia entry on Picture Brides as well!
- Harvey
6 Responses to “Picture Bride”
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Heather Meadows
Feb 12th, 2007
at 03:17
Wow, that sounds really interesting! I’m adding it to my Netflix queue :)
mike h
Feb 12th, 2007
at 06:44
i placed it in my nexflix also. the movie was done in 1994.
harvey
Feb 12th, 2007
at 09:01
Hey I heard that Blockbuster had some kind of video renting scheme that was better than Netflix. No?
I have been away for so long that I haven’t had the chance to try either though, so ti’s just hearsay… I could be wrong!
Let me know how the movie is once you get it!
kevin
Feb 22nd, 2007
at 12:02
hey, i saw picture bride. definitely see it. i went out to see one of the sugar plantations in hawaii where many japanese, as well as many other, immigrants worked. it was solid.
if you do go to hawaii. check out the hawaiian plantation museum. it is about 10-20 minutes west of pearl harbor by car. sadly, it is missed by many tourists who go to visit hawaii. but the people who worked there were great. after the tour, they cooked lunch for my friend and me, as well.
but yeah, i hope you check out the movie. it is a pretty interesting.
harvey
Feb 22nd, 2007
at 13:14
Hey Kevin, hey cool blog btw!
I’ll have to get my hands on picture bride and also go to the museum if I ever get to Hawaii.
Thanks for the tip!
mike h
Feb 26th, 2007
at 15:11
I watched Picture Bride tonight. It’s an American independent film based on real events and directed by a Professor at UCLA. It’s an amazing story about Japanese women moving to Hawaii and working in Cane fields after getting married to men they just met via letters and pictures only. I would highly suggest watching it and the special features on the DVD also.