Conclusion
Learning the details of these women’s lives was incredibly interesting. I have so many questions about why Nami lived in a hotel or how Tsui happened to be roommates with so many people working in the humanities. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t much documentation apart from travel, census, birth, and death. I feel as though I’m missing a lot of steps and I’m not telling their stories in a just way, only repeating the interesting nuggets that make sense in a certain context. Both women had similar circumstances, in that they were picture brides, but they lived completely different lives. Tsui was about ten years younger than Nami at the time of immigration. She left her family in Japan just barely out of her teens, while Nami was a grown adult. Tsui also had a child much sooner than Nami, putting down roots as soon as she could have, but it seems that Nami’s life was a bit more chaotic. I feel as though I’ve had a truer glimpse into the individual lives of Japanese immigrants and I’ve learned a lot about the service industries as well.