The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka
During the first two decades of the 20th century more than 20,000 young Japanese women journeyed by boat to Hawaii and the west coast of America to join their husbands. The men had already crossed the Pacific to find work, largely as labourers in the agricultural lands of the Californian valleys.
The husbands and wives had never previously met: the men couldn’t afford to return home to follow the normal rules of courtship, so they sent photographs of themselves instead. These pictures were hawked around likely families by matchmakers, an arrangement was made, and the wedding formalised in absentia. The women who married this way became known as “picture brides”.more...
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