SAKADAS – Repatriated Filipino sugar workers. During the first half of the 20th century, Hawaii and California had agricultural economies requiring a constant supply of inexpensive, immigrant labor. Hawaii’s economy focused on sugar growing supported by plantation labor.
To sustain the constant demand for labor, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association (HSPA) conducted a systematic, organized recruitment of Filipino laborers. Labor recruiters went to the Philippines and setup recruitment centers in Vigan, Ilocos Sur and Cebu. In 1906, the first fifteen Tagalog laborers came to Hawaii. Thereafter, statistics showed the following Filipinos arrived in Hawaii: 1907 (150); 1909 (639); by 1910 (2,915); from 1911 to 1920 (est. 3,000 yearly; 1920 (avg. 7.630 annually). In 1930, Filipinos replaced the Japanese as the largest ethnic group of workers in the plantations.
