The labor action involved 8,300 sugar plantation field workers out on strike from January to July 1920.

Some 150 evicted workers and their family members died of the epidemic Spanish flu during the strike, with their poor living conditions presumably contributing to their deaths.

The demands were pay raises from $0.77 to a $1.25 for males and $0.58 to $0.90 per day and paid maternal leave for females (With inflation $1 in 1920 is about $15 in 2025).

The strike involved 8,300 workers spanning six plantations: 5,000 Japanese, 3,000 Filipinos, and 300 of other ethnicities – Portuguese, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, Spanish, Mexicans, and Koreans.

The evicted took shelter in homes of strike sympathizers, hotels, tents, empty buildings and factories as well as Buddhists and Shinto churches, but Christian clergy had been prominent opponents of the strike and turned away homeless pickets and their families from lodging in Christian churches.

The Federation of the Japanese Labor arranged a protest march with 3,000 participants on April 3 and went down King street.

The strike lasted until July 1, more than half a year, when a compromise was reached at the Alexander Young Building which included a 50% pay raise and more benefits.