After 1908 the immigration of Japanese, like that of Chinese, was restricted; 400 emigrants per year were permitted to leave Japan for Canada. However, no burdensome head tax was levied. Because the wives of residents could still enter the country, the largest number of Japanese immigrating after 1908 were females -- proxy wives, or ``picture brides", joining their husbands. The life of a Japanese wife could be lonely indeed. She might live in rural isolation, or she might live apart from her husband while he laboured in a mining camp, in a sawmill, or on a fishing boat. Coming to Canada usually ten years later than he, she generally had a lesser grasp of Canadian customs and the English language. If her children adopted Canadian ways and abandoned the traditions of the parents, her isolation might be even more nearly complete.
