Picture Brides

While watching "Picture Brides" this morning in class, a CRT term that really stood out to me was the term Cultural Nationalism, meaning "the view that people of color owe particular allegiance to their own communities, even above that to the United States". While the Japanese people working in the sugar cane fields in Hawaii did not necessarily exhibit this trait as a group, it was a trait that Riyo exhibits after coming to Hawaii from Japan as a picture bride. Rather than using her money to contribute to her husband's income, which is what I expect most Japanese women living in Hawaii were expected to do with their earnings, Riyo instead chooses to save her money so that she can return to Japan. Even when Matsuji tells Riyo that he and the other Japanese field workers are thinking about striking and need everybody to contribute as much money to a mutual fund as they can, Riyo only contributes $2, telling Matsuji that she won't be able to return to Japan if she gives more of her earnings to the strike fund. Riyo's allegiance is, first and foremost, to her home country of Japan, even though she doesn't have anything left for her there, and would have no marriage prospects there. Japanese tradition indicates that her allegiance should be to her husband and to the allegiances her husband chooses. Matsuji, while still loyal to Japan, accepts the fact that going back to Japan isn't going to happen, and accepts Hawaii as his home. Riyo exhibits cultural nationalism, Matsuji does not. The one way that Matsuji does clearly exhibit cultural nationalism in the film is seen through the fact that he sends for a Japanese picture bride to be his wife - his loyalty, there is to the Japanese culture that he left behind.

Riyo's exhibition of cultural nationalism is similar to the cultural nationalism exhibited by Chinese workers when they first came to America - according to Takaki, the wives and sons of Chinese workers who went to the United States to work were kept at home in hopes that "they would be able to buttress family ties and filial obligations. Their wandering sons would not forget their families in China and would send remittances home" (Takaki 37). To Chinese workers living in America, their allegiance was to their home community and family in China, rather than to the United States. Additionally, many Chinese workers expected that they would be returning home to China once they had earned money in America, something which can be seen in the film we watched last week, "Eat a Bowl of Tea" - in this film, Ben's father clearly states that he had intended to go back home to China, but that it had never happened, and he was forced to make America into his new home. However, his allegiance was still with China, as seen by the fact that he sends his son Ben to China so that he can marry a Chinese woman.