The Picture Bride Quotes

“The plantation owners farmed on a large scale, exporting sugar and pineapple. They had made Hawaiʻi an American territory to avoid high export tariffs. They initially used indigenous people as workers, but the numbers were far from sufficient. So they had hired Europeans, but they couldn’t stand the hot weather and hard work. Then the owners had looked toward Asia. The first to be brought in were Chinese, but the majority of them left the farms at the end of their contract and went to work on the mainland. The next to come were Japanese. They also went to the mainland after the end of their contract, and frequently held strikes, demanding increased wages and improved treatment. The first workers from Korea arrived in 1903.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“I’ve seen people living in every kind of house. And do you know what I’ve concluded from that? It’s that people are all the same, everywhere. Yangban, commoner, rich man, beggar, they’re all the same.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“The country they had been told was a paradise was just like Korea, a country stolen. Everyone looked surprised. “The queen, who was confined to her palace, died last year. When I saw Hawaiian people crying at the funeral, I cried too. They’re gentle and generous,”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“We didn’t shelter from the rain. If you live in Hawaiʻi, you simply let rain like this fall upon you.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“That’s not why I want to join the army. It’s not for Korea, nor for America. This is my chance. Do you think that we second- and third-generation people are fully American just because we have American citizenship? My parents’ nationality is Japanese, isn’t it? On the mainland right now, people are in an uproar telling Japanese people to go back to Japan. In the eyes of Americans, I am Japanese. In a case like this, I have to show that I am an American citizen and a patriot. That way, I can get a job and succeed, later on. I want to enlist for my own sake and that of my family, so that I can become the head of the family and fulfill my responsibilities.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“The word “aloha,” which could be heard everywhere, was not just a greeting. It was a word meaning compassion, kindness, affection, and sympathy. It expressed the indigenous Hawaiian spirit of loving, caring, respecting, and sharing joy with each other.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“Even if they use the same language, parents and children don’t communicate well anyway.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“life’s crises had come raging, innumerable like the waves of the sea. The deaths of her father and brother, the life that had followed, life in Hawaiʻi as a picture bride … Nothing was ever easy.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“Jongho enjoyed playing with the Filipino child next door. The two of them were the same age, and played well together, while speaking Korean and Filipino respectively. Adults took sides and divided according to nationality, race, or religion, but there were no such boundaries between children.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“People should always watch their mouths. Words become sparks that kindle fires. Those were words her mother had hammered into her since childhood. Fearing that words once spoken might spread like fire, Willow buried gossip deep in her heart.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“To be a husband is not simply a matter of providing food.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride

“In those days as now, many people attended the church, because it was the center of everything. My family also attended regularly. The children learned to write at the church’s Hangul school. But after my wife and youngest son died, I no longer felt like going to church. I felt resentful if such things were God’s will.”
― Lee Geum-yi, The Picture Bride