COURTESY OF JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM A sample of clothing worn by plantation workers is part of the "From Bento to Mixed Plate" museum exhibit.

"From Bento to Mixed Plate,"
a museum exhibit in Hiroshima,
explores the evolution of
Japanese immigrants in Hawaii

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By Mary Vorsino
mvorsino@starbulletin.com

he story of Japanese immigration to Hawaii has returned to the place where it all started.

"From Bento to Mixed Plate," a museum exhibit that explores the evolution of Japanese Americans in Hawaii, opened yesterday in the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum in Japan.

For Arnold Hiura, the exhibit's curator, the show is "a return to roots," since Hiroshima is where his great-grandparents were born.

"It definitely holds deep personal meaning for me, just the idea that somehow my great-grandparents (were here)," Hiura said.

Hiura's grandmother Sasano immigrated to Hawaii with her parents. Her bento tin is one of nearly 200 exhibit artifacts on loan from members of Hawaii's Japanese community.

"I really hesitated to make the exhibit too personal," Hiura said. But now his grandmother's bento tin, which he found in his parent's cupboard, is "being handled with white gloves. ... It's almost very amusing."

COURTESY OF JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM The first "kesho mawashi" (ceremonial sumo apron) Jesse Kuhaulua received after entering the sumo world was from members of the 442nd Veterans Club and emblazoned with the logo of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Hiroshima is the eighth stop for the exhibit since 1997, and Hiura said that he sees it as fitting that the exhibit's opening at Hiroshima's Prefectural Art Museum coincides with the fifth anniversary of the Honolulu-Hiroshima sister-city relationship.

Visitors to the exhibit are greeted with an "island-style garage," complete with surfboard and refrigerator. The exhibit explores how Japanese Americans were shaped by the different cultures in Hawaii. More than 600,000 people have seen it since its debut at the Bishop Museum in October 1997.

"It (the exhibit) told the story through experience. ... Through all of our sharing, we've create this culture that is Hawaii," said Lynne Wolforth, the assistant curator for temporary and traveling exhibits at Lyman Museum in Hilo, which held the exhibit for six months.

The first group of Japanese immigrants numbered less than 200 and arrived in Hawaii in 1868, according to the Japanese American National Museum.

In 1885 about 1,000 more Japanese immigrants came to the islands. Of those, 222 were from Hiroshima. By 1924, when the Asian Exclusion Act stopped Japanese immigration to the United States, more than 30,000 immigrants from Hiroshima lived in Hawaii.

COURTESY OF JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM Hiroshima is the eighth stop for the exhibit since its opening at the Bishop Museum in 1997. From left to right, state Sen. Calvin Kawamoto; Irene Hirano, director of the Japanese American National Museum; U.S. Consul General Robert Ludan; and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

According to the 2000 census, 201,764 Hawaii residents said they were solely of Japanese ancestry -- 16.7 percent of the state's population. Another 94,910 listed themselves as part Japanese. The total accounts for 24.5 percent of the state's population of 1.2 million.

Since Monday, Hiura has been working with Japanese schoolchildren and teachers to explain the exhibit and its message. A curriculum was developed by Hawaii teachers and translated to Japanese by the museum's educational consultant, Yoshihori Miki.

The curriculum, along with the exhibit, aims to illustrate the "real Hawaii," Hiura said.

Several hundred Hawaii descendants of Japanese immigrants are in Hiroshima for the exhibit's opening. It will remain in Hiroshima until June 23 and is scheduled to open in October at Niigata Prefectural Museum.