Hole Hole Bushi (Japanese Work Song)

DESCRIPTION: Japanese. "Hawaii, Hawaii, Kite mirya Jigoku." "Hawaii, Hawaii... When I came what I saw was hell. The boss was Satan." The singer says that a letter from home in Japan made the work slightly less hard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hawaii Herald, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: Hawaii work separation Devil nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 692, "Hole Hole Bushi (Japanese Work Song)" (1 Japanese text plus English translation)
NOTES [90 words]: According to Kevin Phillips, William McKinley [a volume in the American Presidents series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.], Times Books, 2003, pp. 105-106, by the McKinley administration (1897-1901), Japanese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands had become so large that they represented a quarter of the island's population. (American citizens were about a twelfth.) In that context, the surprise is not that there were Japanese folk sons in Hawaii, but that there were so few -- according to Cohen, this is the only one known. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS2692

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