Sugar plantations and immigration: how local culture formed

Starting with Kōloa, Kauaʻi, in 1835, sugar (and later pineapple) plantations reshaped Hawaiʻi. They brought hundreds of thousands of workers from China, Japan, Portugal, Korea, the Philippines and beyond; their mix of foods, festivals and Pidgin English became Hawaiʻi's local culture. Hawaiʻi's last sugar mill, Puʻunēnē on Maui, closed in 2016.

• First plantation: the Old Sugar Mill at Kōloa, Kauaʻi (1835).
• Who came: about 50,000 Chinese (1852 to 1887), about 200,000 Japanese (1885 to 1924), Portuguese from Madeira and the Azores, about 7,300 Koreans (1903 to 1910), and about 112,800 Filipinos (1909 to 1930), plus Puerto Ricans and others. Many stayed.
• Plantation life: workers lived in ethnic camps but shared food at lunch, which is the origin of the mixed plate lunch, and created Hawaiian Pidgin to talk across languages.
• Strikes in 1920 and later united workers across ethnic lines and helped end the plantation system's grip.
• Visit: Hawaiʻi's Plantation Village in Waipahu (an outdoor museum of plantation homes from many ethnic groups), the Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum in Puʻunēnē, Maui, and Grove Farm on Kauaʻi.

Sources: Wikipedia: Sugar plantations in Hawaiʻi · to-Hawaii: Hawaiʻi Plantation Village

Last checked Nov. 1, 2026. Hours, fees and rules can change, so confirm with the official source before you go.