The SS China was the first ship to carry Okinawan immigrants to Hawaii.
On its first such voyage, it departed Okinawa on December 5, 1899, carrying Tôyama Kyûzô, his brother Tôyama Matasuke, and thirty other men. Three men failed the health inspection at Yokohama, and one more was rejected at Quarantine Island in Honolulu. Twenty-six men thus constituted the first group of official Okinawan immigrants to Hawaii.
References
- Franklin Odo and Kazuko Sinoto, A Pictorial History of the Japanese in Hawaii 1885-1924, Bishop Museum (1985), 47.
- Mitsugu Sakihara, "Okinawans in Hawaii: An Overview of the Past 80 Years," in Uchinanchu, University of Hawaii (1981), 106.