Picture Bride

When Riyo left her home in Japan to marry Matsuji as a picture bride, she was hoping to marry a handsome man and escape the shame she had to face after her parents died from tuberculosis. However, she is disappointed to find Matsuji much older than the picture he had sent and the work much harder than she expected. The film Picture Bride illustrates the difficulty these Japanese picture brides had in adjusting to the American lifestyle as well as the unfair treatment the Japanese plantation workers received.

At first, Riyo is stubborn, refusing to accept her life in America and saves up money to go home to Japan. Her behavior is similar to Mei Oi's behavior in the film Eat a Bowl of Tea. Both women immigrated to America as brides. Both women found it extremely difficult to adjust to the environment. Mei Oi is fascinated by all the luxuries in America, but becomes homesick as she is unable to find the social company so abundant in China. On the other hand, Riyo is appalled at the poor lifestyle  Later on, when she finally accepts Matsuji as her husband and her new home in America, she finds other ways to preserve her culture and customs. As mentioned in the group presentation, the Japanese relied on their religion as a social relief. This can be seen at the end of the film where the Japanese workers were celebrating the Odon festival, a part of Shintoism, their main religion. They also found familiarity from Japanese folktales and songs they would sing in the fields.

In the scene where Matsuji and the other men were planning to go on strike, they mentioned that it would be best if they teamed up with the Filipinos, which might make it more effective. Mentioned in Takaki, the Japanese were the first to organize labor unions with other minority groups. In fact in 1903, the JMLA unified Japanese and Mexican workers, making it the "first time in the history of California, two minority groups had come together to form a union" (Takaki 198). However, there were some tension between the Filipinos and Japanese illustrated in the film when one of the Filipino workers and Kana's husband got in an argument about the salary. This illustrates the first CRT tenet that everyone is racist. Not only were the whites racist to the Asians, but between the minority groups, there were still discrimination and prejudice.