Rakuyo Maru Tokio Analysis

In this image, the photographer presents us with four unidentified Japanese women. In the photograph, the women seem to be smiling happily on what appears to be a dock. Two of which are holding a white life saver raft with the words “Rakuyo Maru, Tokio” written on it in big letters. The sunshine outside and the smiles on their faces seem to give the photograph of their departure a pleasant ambience. The Rakuyo Maru was one of the steam ship liners which carried immigrants to their destinations, in particular, they brought immigrants to Angel Island. Angel Island (also referred to as the Ellis Island of the West) was an immigration detention center located in the San Francisco Bay. According to Lee and Yung, Angel Island, “Played a key role
Picture Brides were women who were “found” a husband in Asia or another country and were forced to marry him. They usually did not know the man and only had an idea of who he was by an exchange of pictures. If men were pleased by the pictures they were sent, they would agree to the marriage and have these women “shipped” to wherever they were located. For example, the women in the photograph were going to Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico. These women agreed to marry the men perhaps because their parents/family told them too, to escape their lives of poverty, or simply because they had no choice. Many of these “picture brides” were Japanese and traveled on ships such as the Rakuyo Maru to Angel Island to meet their husbands to
The stock market had plummeted, companies were going out of business and the employment rate was at an all-time low. People were not happy with the abundance of immigrants entering the United States so they used Angel Island as a means of preventing immigrants from entering, especially the Chinese. The Chinese would stay in Angel Island from month to years waiting to enter the United States. There was a clear difference between Angel Island and Ellis Island “Whereas the rejection rate at Ellis Island was about 1 percent, it was about 18 percent on Angel Island, reflecting the clear anti-Chinese bias that led to its establishment.” (Encyclopedia of North American Immigration) In fact, in 1924, the Immigration Act “closed the door on any further Asian immigration by denying admission to all aliens who were ‘ineligible citizens’.” (Lee and Yung, 7) In addition to the great depression, in 1931, Japan committed an act which is considered by some to be the beginning of World War II. “The misguided nation which really fired the first shot in the new World War when it invaded Manchuria.” (Japan "Fired First Shot)
I believe the photographer took this photograph to show the traditions that were taking place during the early to mid-twentieth century. It was also to show some of the reasons why so many Japanese women were sailing to not only Angel Island but other countries