Problems With The Practice
Though initially unhappy, most of the picture brides eventually settled into their marriages or just accepted them so they did not shame their families. Japanese couples were often from similar areas of Japan and therefore had fewer marital issues than Korean couples who were often from different areas of Korea. Though, there were exceptions to this, and not every marriage worked out. Some of the picture brides, after seeing their husbands for the first time, rejected them and went back to Japan or Korea. Some married husbands that turned out to be alcoholics, physically abusive, or who tried to sell them into brothels, but many stayed in the marriage for the sake of the children. An example of a picture bride who stayed married to her husband, despite his mistreatment towards her, was Shizuko Tamaki; she and her husband were married for 50 years. Others who initially married did not end up staying with their husbands. These picture brides resorted to elopement with another man, or kakeochi in Japanese. Kakeochi was especially hazardous to the picture brides because of its endangerment to their reputation and their residency in the United States. Wives who eloped could be deported to Japan, following the Japanese civil code that granted the husbands the ability to decide the new residency of their wife; for those women, the Women’s Home Missionary Society in the United States provided temporary housing while they waited to go back to Japan. In order to find their wives who had disappeared, the husbands of these women would take out reward ads in Issei community newspapers for whomever could find their wife.
Many residents of America and Hawaii thought that the Gentlemen’s agreement would end Japanese immigration to the United States, so when vast numbers of picture brides started arriving, it revitalized the Anti-Japanese Movement. The people who were so against the immigration of the Japanese and picture brides were called exclusionists. They called picture bride marriage uncivilized because it didn’t involve love or have any regard to morality; exclusionists thought of picture bride marriage as a violation of the Gentlemen’s agreement, since they believed the women were more like workers rather than wives to the men. Exclusionists also feared that children produced from picture bride marriages would be a dangerous addition to the population because they would be able to buy land for their parents in the future. Also, some people, many immigrant inspectors included, thought that picture bride marriage was a disguise for a prostitution trade. Overall, there was a negative sentiment towards picture brides in Hawaii and the United States.
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