A Harvest of Hawaii Plantation Pidgin: The Japanese Way examines, from the perspective of language, the plantation experience of the issei and subsequent generations who came to Hawaii (Tengoku) to work in the sugar fields. Hilo-born Myra Sachiko Ikeda, shows how the Japanese language spoken by the first workers became influenced by the need to communicate with other workers, and how pidgin, the common plantation language that had developed earlier among the Chinese, Portuguese, and Hawaiians to understand each other, quickly integrated Japanese words.
Ikeda, sharing her personal story and motivation in tackling this project, includes important descriptions of plantation life along with discussion of camp names, children’s games like Jan Ken Po, and Hanabata Days.
She also shows that for workers living close together, soci