plantation life sooner than many Japanese women did, and many moved to Honolulu to start their own businesses. Regardless of whether they stayed on the plantation or not, it was important to the picture brides to build communities between themselves through women's groups and churches. Problems with the practice Though initially unhappy, most of the picture brides eventually settled into their marriages or just accepted them so they did not shame their families. Japanese couples were often from similar areas of Japan and therefore had fewer marital issues than Korean couples who were often from different areas of Korea. Though, there were exceptions to this, and not every marriage worked out. Some of the picture brides, after seeing their husbands for the first time, rejected them and went back to Japan or Korea. The bonds of these marriages were tenuous enough that bride Lee Young Oak and her husband Chung Bong Woon were met with praise and relief by their fellow Koreans in Hawaii for the relative success and happiness of their marriage while on their honeymoon in Honolulu. Some married husbands turned out to be alcoholics, physically abusive, or tried to sell them into brothels, but many of these women nevertheless stayed in the marriage for the sake of the children. An example of a picture bride who stayed married to her husband, despite his mistreatment of her, was Shizuko Tamaki; she and her husband were married for 50 years. Others who initially married did not end up staying with their husbands. These picture brides resorted to elopement with another man, or kakeochi in Japanese. Elopement was especially hazardous to the picture brides because of its endangerment of their reputation and their residency in the United States. Wives who eloped could be deported to Japan, following the Japanese civil code that granted the husbands the ability to decide the new residency of their wife; for those women, the Women's Home Missionary Society in the United States provided temporary housing while they waited to go back to Japan. In order to find their wives who had disappeared, the husbands of these women would take out reward ads in Issei community newspapers for whoever could find their wife. Many residents of the American continent and Hawaii thought that the Gentlemen's Agreement would end Japanese immigration to the United States, so when vast numbers of picture brides started arriving, it revitalized the