Immigrants in Hawaii were classified by type as in the following.

The gannen mono period was a period when laborers went to Hawaii still illegally in 1868 as described previously. After gannen mono, emigration to Hawaii as a laborer was prohibited by the Japanese government in fact, so this period saw only 149 immigrants in first year. Seventeen years later then, in 1885, contract labor was permitted legally by the government to Hawaii which started the kanyaku imin or the government-contracted immigrant. During kanyaku imin period, some prefectures−Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Wakayama, and so on−sent many kanyaku imin but other prefectures hardly sent people. One of the reasons was attributed to the fact that these prefectures suffered poverty from famine and the population drastically increased so they were thrown into severe overpopulation. But the most important reason was that Robert Irwin, who served in recruiting laborers in Japan, had a connection with Inoue, Kaoru who was the foreign ministers at that time and Masuda, Takashi who established the foundation for the Mitsui financial group. Both Inoue and Masuda were from Yamaguchi. As a result, in the history of the kanyaku imin, though there was a total of 26 times, few people were from Tohoku region or the northern part of Japan except for one man from Miyagi prefecture who rode on the first ship of kanyaku immigrant to Hawaii.¹⁰⁾

However because the United Sates annexed Hawaii and Hawaii became a territory of America in 1900, contract labor became prohibited after that. So immigrants after 1900 paid the passage expenses by themselves and could freely choose their job and place of residence upon their destination. This was a free immigrant. There were some free immigrants before then. But, because free immigration became the only form of immigration after contract immigration was prohibited in 1900, it was called so.

As for their wage, it had risen with the increase in cost of living. Planters had to pay proper wages to get enough workers. Under the system of the self-contracted immigrant and free immigrant, planters’ competition to obtain workers became more serious, and it raised workers’ wages. But the wages were not enough for the workers still, and besides the upper limit of wages was fixed in 1901.

On the other hand, because of the prohibiting of contract laborer in Hawaii, emigrant companies asked South America and South-East Asia to accept emigrants alternatively. So, from about the free immigrant period, emigration to these areas started.

Furthermore, in the US mainland, the number of Japanese laborers who came from Hawaii and moreover, from Japan directly, began to explode from this time. This Japanese rush aroused anti-Japanese emotion in America.

This anti-Japanese emotion caused the creation of an anti-Japanese law. After eight years then, in 1908, the Gentleman’s Agreement was concluded between the U.S. and Japan. Under the law, new Japanese immigrants were prohibited. Permitted people were only those who had experience to live in America and were called over by close relatives (Picture brides were allowed.) They were called yobiyose imin or the summoned immigrant.

Afterwards, in 1924, immigration was completely prohibited by the Immigration Act. So, after this, the Japanese were no longer able to immigrate to Hawaii and mainland America.

The above-mentioned is mainly the stream of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. But after Hawaii was annexed by America in 1900, Hawaii and America followed the same history; free immigrant period, summoned-immigrant period, and the period of no immigrants.