“A Harvest of Hawai‘i
Plantation Pidgin:
The Japanese Way”
By Myra Sachiko Ikeda
Mutual Publishing, $18.95
Inspired in part by her mother’s devotion to the Japanese culture that flourished on the Big Island plantation where she grew up, Myra Sachiko Ikeda has written a nostalgic lexicon-and-
lifestyle book, “A Harvest of Hawai‘i Plantation Pidgin: The Japanese Way.”
A substantial part of the book is devoted to explanations of Japanese food, language, customs and values. Ikeda thus carefully constructs the context in which she presents her research — not as that of a trained scholar, but as a self-guided compilation by someone with a deep investment in preserving the “mother tongue” and culture that belong to her and other people of Hawaii, including many of non-Japanese descent.
Ikeda describes the mixing of Japanese with other plantation languages, the borrowing and lending of words and phrases, and the social medium in which plantation pidgin grew organically.
She includes multiple pidgin pronunciations for various words or phrases, for example bambai, bumbai, bumbi and bumbye, all used to say “by and by.”
A handy reference are charts and tables that present words and terms in both “Hawaii Japanese” and standard Japanese. Ikeda’s use of romanized Japanese, hiragana, katakana and kanji and her explanation of both connotations and denotations help us see how the language changed as it was being used in a multiethnic, working community.
Take the phrase “Mauka fire, opu pilikia, down below shasha,” a combination of Hawaiian, English and Japanese words that Ikeda translates as, “I have a fever, stomach problems and diarrhea.”
Especially interesting are her explanations of the ways in which children’s games influenced plantation pidgin.
Ikeda’s biographical note says that it was her mother’s “celebration of the culture, traditions, and language of Japan (that) impressed upon her the need to share the history and transformation of the language.” Underscoring that need are two developments in 21st-century Hawaii: the disappearance of the sugar plantations from the state’s social and economic landscape, and the supplanting of plantation pidgin by Hawaii’s Creole English.
The book is introduced by Arnold Hiura, executive director of the Hawaii Japanese Center in Hilo, and illustrated with charming line drawings by Jeffery Kalehuakea De Costa. Hiura grew up in the plantation town of Papaikou on the Big Island, and De Costa in Hilo’s Wainaku district, a community of former sugar cane workers.
Mutual Publishing has taken great care to produce “A Harvest” as both a significant addition to research on pidgin and a gift book to give to friends and family because it represents an important part of who we are. Unfortunately, some readers might be distracted by run-on sentences and typographical errors in the tables.
That said, it’s a good guess that not only Japanese-Americans who lived on plantations, but all those who grew up in Hawaii will appreciate “A Harvest.” It embodies a fundamental aspect of our identity — our past as immigrants to Hawaii — and could serve as a fun conversation starter with folks who might have their own stories and pidgin variations from hanabata days.
