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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, socializing and sharing food at lunchtime, planation camps came to have a great or even greater impact on identity than ethnic background and the important role that Hawai'i Pidgin English played in the dynamics of local identity.
Ikeda's work is particularly timely as living cultural reminders of the plantation era become fewer with sugar towns disappearing or transforming. Her pioneering work, centering on where she was raised, will make it easier for scholars and linguists to research the pidgin spoken by others. Language, word usage and development varied from island to island and, in some cases, even from district to district (the game called kamapio not only varied in spelling and pronunciation, but was even played by different rules from town to town.) Ikeda provides more than just a starting point, but a valuable framework for others to follow.
A Harvest of Hawaii Plantation Pidgin: The Japanese Way appeals to several audiences. Old timers who grew up in plantation villages will recapture memories to share with their grandchildren eg. "Hanabata Days." [This may be considered the perfect Japanese Pidgin term, for not only does it combine Japa
