The Japanese laborers just needed to stop complaining. Demanding more money from plantation managers was preposterous, greedy — and totally unnecessary. Sure, the $18-a-month minimum wage for Japanese workers was significantly less than what their Portuguese and Puerto Rican counterparts made, Hawaii newspapers acknowledged in a series of highly critical stories about the plantation labor … Continue reading Oahu’s First Island-Wide Plantation Strike Ended In Failure. But It Changed Hawaii Forever