May 2025

Volume 17 Number 2

May is AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Heritage Month and National Historic Preservation Month. What better way to celebrate than combining AAPI and maritime history to provide free lesson plans and films in our education program? You can find all of these free educational resources at shiphistory.org/category/aapi/.

Using exclusive oral histories and primary resources straight from our extensive archives, we focus on the vessels, crew, and passengers that revolutionized the way that we traveled, traded, and immigrated. Steam ahead with us as we navigate the waters of America’s rich maritime heritage with our program SHIPS (Ships, History, Influence, and Power Series).

This oral history program, in addition to films and podcast episodes, provides high-quality, free, and standards-aligned lesson plans through the lens of maritime history.

It is generously funded by Member and Former Board President Ted Scull who also helps source interviews, research, and provide visual materials. If you'd like to know how you can support SSHSA's education program, please contact Development Associate Sydney Austin at saustin@sshsa.org.

Join Education Director Aimee Bachari for a two-part discussion on Japanese immigration to Hawai’i by steamship and the practice of picture brides with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor of History and Ethnic Studies Dr. Kelli Nakamura. In Part I, you’ll learn about how the American Civil War and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 fueled a need for sugar plantation workers in Hawai’i. You will also hear about the practice of picture brides, or arranged marriages, where partners were selected by photos and personal recommendations of friends and family. In Part II of this interview, they discuss women’s work, domestic violence, WWII and internment, and citizenship issues.

Chinese and Japanese Immigration to America

Lesson Plan

Picture Brides arriving at Angel Island in California joining their spouses working on the West Coast and in Hawai'i. CA Parks photo.

California passed the Land Law in 1913 barred “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning land or leasing it for more than three years. Public Domain photo.

In this lesson plan for grades 9 - 12, students will learn about:

• Attitudes toward immigration in the United States
• Anti-Chinese sentiments and the Chinese Exclusion Act
• Japanese Immigration to the United States
• Labor in the sugar plantations in Hawai'i
• Picture Brides

Women engine builders pose in front of a completed engine at Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Co., an Ohio-based steam and diesel engine manufacturer. They built engines for various shipyards, including the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. General Machinery Corporation Collection, SSHSA Archives. 

Watch this clip from a larger two-part interview with Dr. Kelli Nakamura on the experience of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. Dr. Nakamura talks about the reasons behind internment and the differences in internment on the Hawaiian Islands versus the mainland. She also discusses Japanese Americans who served during the war and citizenship issues.

In this lesson plan for grades 9 - 12, students will:

• Understand the multiple ways women contributed to the war effort during World War II 
• Learn about discrimination and racism at home including
• the “Double V Campaign”
• Japanese Internment 
• Gain knowledge of women’s work in the maritime field during the war 
• Consider how women’s work changed from pre-war times to post-war times

Join us for tales of ships that reshaped our history as the country transitioned from sail to steam and beyond.

Learn more at shiphistory.org/radio or search for Ship History Radio wherever you get your podcasts.

Help us steam

full ahead into our

90th year!

Use the link above or call us at

401-463-3570

Did you know that the Steamship Historical Society is on YouTube? From historic films in our archival collections and presentations to SHIPS films and podcast episodes, there's something for every shipster. Click the button below to see our channel and don't forget to like and subscribe!

© 2025