Japanese immigrant laborers comprised the majority of Hawaiian sugar plantation workers after their large-scale importation as contract workers in 1885. They composed unique folk songs called holehole bushi which merged melodies with lyrics about work, life, and the global connection which they clearly perceived after arriving.

While many are songs of lamentation, others reflect a rapid adaptation to a new society in which other ethnic groups were arranged in untidy hierarchical order - the origins of a unique multicultural social order dominated by an oligarchy of white planters.

In Voices From the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawai'i, Dr. Franklin Odo situates over 200 translated songs in their unexplored historical context.

Read our interview with Dr. Franklin Odo on Discover Nikkei>>