e is also crucial in understanding why the Japanese remained on the plantations in Hawaii, while the Chinese flourished on the mainland.
In the first place, the Japanese and the Chinese were treated quite differently by immigration laws, as Chan writes, with the Chinese being far more discriminated against than the Japanese. Second, the Japanese men and Chinese men adopted different approaches to their wives and families with respect to forming families in either Hawaii or the mainland. For example, as Chan writes,
Among the Chinese, just because the number of female emigrants was small did not mean that the majority of male emigrants were single: many men married shortly before they went abroad. Most waited until they were sure their wives were pregnant before departing. Thereafter, . . . they would return [to China] to spend a few months with their families, with the hope of fathering additional children during their visits. Parents of emigrant sons believed that keeping the latter's wives in China ensured that they would faithfully remit money home to support their extended families.
Sons and other male relatives would join the original Chinese emigrant, leaving females behind in China and reducing the family bond in Hawaii or the mainland.
A different sensibility guided the Japanese:
Relatively fewer of the Japanese mal
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