Karleen C. Chinen
Commentary
Happy New Year! I hope your 2020 is off to a good start.
When I looked ahead to 2020 early last year, the only major event that registered was this summer’s Tökyö Olympics. That didn’t last very long, however, as I soon realized that 2020 also marks the start of a new decade and a long list of milestone anniversaries.
For starters, this year marks 135 years since the first group of 944 kanyaku imin, or Japanese contract immigrants, arrived in Hawai‘i in February 1885. It was the start of mass immigration from Japan that continued until 1924 and led to the development of Hawai‘i’s Japanese community.
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